In The Regime of Islands Reframed, Clive Schofield examines the definition of islands and other insular features under the international law of the sea with particular reference to the South China Sea case between China and the Philippines which has served to reframe understanding of this contentious area of international law.

This is the first comprehensive study on archipelagic regimes published since the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982. The book traces the historical evolution of the archipelagic concept in international law and examines the definition of archipelagos and archipelagic states. The nature, status and regime of the waters of different types of archipelagos is examined and analysed from the perspective of archipelagic states and is based on the requirement of such states for territorial integrity and self-determination. The book introduces the concept of `Ocean States' and links Ocean States with the archipelagic concept. The archipelagic concept is viewed as a practical as well as a functional basis for the determination of the territorial limits of Ocean States.

The South China Sea has long been a source of conflict and represents a core contemporary security issue in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. This book offers an empirical analysis of the global ocean's most contested maritime territory, the South China Sea and its agents of contest.

This key work analyses the disputes between Greece and Turkey as to their respective rights in the Aegean Sea, paying particular attention to the claims regarding territorial waters, the continental shelf, and the yet to be declared exclusive maritime zones in the area. While many earlier studies have concentrated on political factors, this study provides an exhaustive analysis of the relevant principles of international law in general and rules and principles of maritime law in particular, identifying the legal principles appropriate to the settlement of the Aegean dispute. With this regard, it makes a detailed examination of all the related aspects of the Aegean Sea and its islands, as well as the legal arguments of Greece and Turkey on the disputes concerned. It also clarifies the prospects for settling the dispute on the basis of international law, either by the two parties involved, or by the intervention of a third party such as the International Court of Justice. As such, it offers an important study of a particular problem, but one that can be used as a case study for other international disagreements.

It is a truism that the increasingly rapid movement in technology is forcing change and shift in the norms of international law. The 149 states of the Law of the Sea Conferences of the United Nations have been attempting to establish and develop adequate legal norms that will take into account the need for the orderly growth and use of the changing technological capabilities and the resulting economic development that cannot and should not be hindered by in adequate law. When such norms are identified and agreed by a substantial majority of states, they are usually set out and placed into multilateral treaties. The rules governing the resource and non-resource allocation of the oceans and the uses ofthe oceans have posed major difficulties for the development of international law for many years. The Geneva Conference of 1958 building upon the groundwork of the International Law Commission of the United Nations shaped a rough structure for a 20th Century Law of the Seas and for mulated the effort in four major international conventions. But a majority of the states failed to ratify or accede to the conventions. Even had they become effec tive as the expression of the Law of the Seas in the second half of the 20th Cen tury, there was one glaring area of omission: a conventional law for the waters of mid-ocean archipelagos and archipelagic states.

A surprising number of maritime boundaries remain unresolved, and a range of reasons can be cited to explain why the process of delimiting these boundaries has been so slow. This volume addresses and analyzes some of these reasons, focusing on some of the volatile disputes in Northeast Asia and in North America. Scholars from Asia, the United States, and Europe grapple with festering controversies and apply insights gained from resolved disputes to those that remain unresolved. Islands continue to haunt this process, and the way in which they should affect maritime boundaries remains in dispute. The United States has a number of disputed boundaries with its neighbors to the north and south, and these are examined. Antarctica is a concern of all nations, and the regimes governing the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica are analyzed. The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea was created to allow countries to resolve their disputes peacefully, and two chapters look at how this new court is operating. The impact of sea-level rise on maritime boundaries is given special attention in the opening chapter. This volume presents a wonderful collection of provocative chapters written by the top scholars in the field of International Ocean Law. It should help scholars, students, and decision makers to understand the current state of this field and to move some of the difficult disputes toward resolution.