South China Sea Lawfare: Post-Arbitration Policy Options and Future Prospects is the second of two reports in the series published by the South China Sea Think Tank. Published shortly after the tribunal issued its final award in the Philippines v. China arbitration case in July 2016, the report is the result of a collaborative effort by an international team of authors and incorporates the diverse perspectives of claimants and non-claimant stakeholders in the South China Sea maritime territorial disputes.

South China Sea Lawfare: Legal Perspectives and International Responses to the Philippines v. China Arbitration Case is the first of two reports published by the South China Sea Think Tank. Published shortly after the tribunal issued its first award in the Philippines v. China arbitration case, the report is the result of a collaborative effort by an international team of authors and incorporates the diverse perspectives of claimants and non-claimant stakeholders in the South China Sea maritime territorial disputes.

'Global Commons’ refers to resource domains or areas that lie outside of the political reach of any one State, including sea areas beyond national jurisdiction and Antarctica. The concept of ‘global commons’ is a living concept and can accommodate, over time, other commons at the international level, such as biodiversity and generic resources. The outlook for the global marine commons is not encouraging: fishery resources continue to deplete, marine biodiversity continues to reduce, and plastic wastes in the oceans continue to increase. In international law, there are legal regimes governing global marine commons, the most important of which is the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC). Effective as of 1994 LOSC governs the high seas, international seabed and its resources, marine environmental protection, and fisheries. Global Commons and the Law of the Sea offers intellectual discussions on global marine commons. It contains six parts respectively addressing the principle of the common heritage of mankind (CHM), freedoms of high seas, deep sea mining and international seabed, area beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) governance, management of geoengineering and generic resources, and recent developments in the polar regions.

The need for freedoms of navigation in regional waters is frequently mentioned in statements from regional forums, but a common understanding of what constitutes a particular freedom of navigation or the relevant law is lacking. This book discusses how law, politics and strategy intersect to provide different perspectives of freedoms on navigation in the Asia-Pacific region. These freedoms are very important in this distinctively maritime region, but problems arise over interpreting the navigational regimes under the law of the sea, especially with regard to the rights of foreign warships to transit another country’s territorial sea without prior notification or authorisation of the coastal state, and with determining the availability of high seas freedoms of navigation and overflight in an exclusive economic zone. The book explores these issues, referring in particular to the position of the main protagonists on these issues in Asian waters – the United States and China – with their strongly opposing views. The book concludes with a discussion of the prospects for either resolving these different perspectives or for developing confidence-building measures that would reduce the risks of maritime incidents. Providing a comprehensive yet concise overview of the various different factors affecting freedom of navigation, this book will be a valuable resource for those working or studying in the fields of international relations, maritime security and the law of the sea.

The South China Sea: Hydrocarbon Potential and Possibilities of Joint Development presents the proceedings of the EAPI/CCOP Workshop East-West Center held in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 5-12, 1980. The book contains papers on the geology and offshore hydrocarbon potential in the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia; and on the need for certain basic prerequisites for initiating and maintaining rational and orderly oil and gas exploration and development programs. The text also presents papers on the establishment of effective production-sharing type tax regimes for petroleum; on the implications of the Southeast Asian contractual framework; and on a general approach to the planning and management of environmental aspects related to offshore oil and gas prospecting, drilling, development and production. The precedents of the joint development of hydrocarbons in areas of overlapping boundary claims, with examples from the North Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Korea-Japan continental shelf and the Thai-Malaysian continental shelf, are also considered.

In Lawfare, author Orde Kittrie's draws on his experiences as a lawfare practitioner, US State Department attorney, and international law scholar in analyzing the theory and practice of the strategic leveraging of law as an increasingly powerful and effective weapon in the current global security landscape. Lawfare incorporates case studies of recent offensive and defensive lawfare by the United States, Iran, China, and by both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and includes dozens of examples of how lawfare has thus been waged and defended against. Kittrie notes that since private attorneys can play important and decisive roles in their nations' national security plans through their expertise in areas like financial law, maritime insurance law, cyber law, and telecommunications law, the full scope of lawfare's impact and possibilities are just starting to be understood.

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.

The rise of China signals a new chapter in international relations. How China interacts with the international legal order--namely, how China utilizes international law to facilitate and justify its rise and how international law is relied upon to engage a rising China--has invited growing debate among academics and those in policy circles. Two recent events, the South China Sea Arbitration and the US-China trade war, have deepened tensions. This book, for the first time, provides a systematic and critical elaboration of the interplay between a rising China and international law. Several crucial questions are broached. These include: How has China adjusted its international legal policies as China's state identity changes over time, especially as it becomes a formidable power? Which methodologies has China adopted to comply with international law and, in particular, to achieve its new legal strategy of norm entrepreneurship? How does China organize its domestic institutions to engage international law in order to further its ascendance? How does China use international law at a national level (in the Chinese courts) and at an international level (for example, lawfare in international dispute settlement)? And finally, how should "Chinese exceptionalism" be understood? This book contributes significantly to the burgeoning and highly relevant scholarship on China and international law.

The South China Sea has long been regarded as one of the most complex and challenging ocean-related maritime disputes in East Asia. Recently it has become the locus of disputes that have the potential of escalating into serious international conflicts. Historical mistrust, enduring territorial disputes, and competing maritime claims have combined to weaken an at least partially successful regional security structure. Issues of concern include territorial sovereignty; disputed claims to islands, rocks, and reefs; jurisdiction over territorial waters, exclusive economic zones, and the seabed; regional and international rights to use the seas for military purposes; maritime security; rapid economic development; and environmental degradation. The fear is that increasing competition for energy and other resources will exacerbate conflicts and further fuel nationalism and sovereignty issues in the region. The SCS has an integrated ecosystem and is one of the richest seas in the world in terms of marine flora and fauna: coral reefs, mangroves, sea-grass beds, fish, and plants. National economic security can be easily affected by conflicts occurring in major international trade routes like the SCS, or how such an unclear situation might even give rise to environmental challenges in the future. The book creates an understanding as to why this region is important not only to the claimants but to global powers like the United States and India. The book examines current and potential conflicts in the South China Sea, and also evaluates how conflicts have been “managed” to date and suggests as to how they might be better managed in the future. This book concludes with recommendations for improving the situation in the region by ensuring a strong economic relationships, using high-resolution observation satellites, and undertaking joint development, and resource exploration etc.