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    Securing the Safety of Navigation in East Asia: Legal and Political Dimensions
    Securing the Safety of Navigation in East Asia: Legal and Political Dimensions
    Securing the Safety of Navigation in East Asia: Legal and Political Dimensions
    Ebook521 pages6 hours

    Securing the Safety of Navigation in East Asia: Legal and Political Dimensions

    By Shicun Wu and Keyuan Zou

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    About this ebook

    Safe navigation of the seas is of global importance. Sea lanes provide vital connections for the growth of the global economy and the wellbeing of people everywhere. The sea lanes are of particular importance for the East Asian region, as most trade is undertaken on the ocean. Booming economies in the region such as China and Vietnam put more pressure on sea lanes, triggering concern for the safety of navigation. Securing the Safety of Navigation in East Asia identifies salient issues for academic debate, and further explores those that have practical implications for the safety of navigation in East Asia. Contemporary maritime security concentrates on safe navigation and inhibiting transnational crimes, including sea piracy and maritime terrorism. Maritime environmental security and search and rescue at sea are also important. Securing the Safety of Navigation in East Asia is structured into four sections: the first part introduces the topic, and looks at the safety of navigation and the search for a cooperative mechanism. The second part considers the international legal framework and its implications for East Asia. The third part presents national perspectives on the safety of navigation, and fi nally part four considers navigational issues in the South China Sea.
    • Places a special focus on East Asia
    • Accommodates national perspectives in East Asia on navigation given by scholars from China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore
    • Presents a special section on the South China Sea, located in Southeast Asia and connecting the Indian and Pacific oceans; a critical sea route for maritime transport
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherElsevier Science
    Release dateNov 21, 2013
    ISBN9781782421603
    Securing the Safety of Navigation in East Asia: Legal and Political Dimensions

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      Book preview

      Securing the Safety of Navigation in East Asia - Shicun Wu

      Singapore.

      Part 1

      Introduction

      1

      Safety of navigation in East Asia: seeking a cooperative mechanism

      Shicun Wu and Keyuan Zou

      Abstract:

      This is the introductory chapter setting forth the purpose and structure of the book and identifying the issues to be discussed throughout the book. By introducing the outline of the book, the chapter finds some concluding observations on how to secure the safety of navigation in East Asia through a cooperative mechanism.

      Key words

      East Asia

      navigation

      maritime security

      sea lanes

      UNCLOS

      EEZ

      Introduction

      Safety of navigation is always a major concern in the world community as the sea lanes in the oceans are lifelines for the growth of the global economy and well-being of humankind. Navigation is particularly of vital importance for the East Asian region as most of the commercial transactions are undertaken through the sea lanes. With booming economies in East Asia such as China’s and Vietnam’s, the reliance on sea lanes has been further intensified, thus triggering more concerns about the safety of navigation. The purpose of the book is to identify the issues which are worth an intellectual exercise at the academic level and at the practical level to find a way of cooperation so as to enhance the safety of navigation in East Asia.

      Safety of navigation is a central issue in the context of maritime security which has caught the attention of the world community. In the contemporary era, maritime security mainly concerns the safety of navigation, and crackdown on transnational crimes including sea piracy and maritime terrorism. In the context of safety of navigation, issues such as maritime environmental security, and search and rescue at sea are also included. The proposed volume will discuss and assess various topical issues in relation to maritime navigation, such as the political implications of maritime navigation, the relationship between navigational rights and marine scientific research, and compulsory pilotage in international straits. What is unique about this book is its accommodation of national perspectives in East Asia on navigation expounded by established scholars and experts from China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore. Since the South China Sea, which is located in Southeast Asia and connects the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, is a critical sea route for maritime transport of East Asian countries including China, there is a special section in the book specifically addressing the South China Sea.

      Issues identified and discussed

      It is acknowledged that it is not possible for a single book to accommodate all the issues concerning the safety of navigation. Realistically, this book has only identified and selected the most pressing and significant ones as topics for discussion. In terms of the book’s structure, it is divided into four parts. Apart from Part 1, which is the introductory chapter, the following three parts deal with the international legal framework for navigation, national perspectives on the safety of navigation, and navigational issues in the South China Sea.

      Part 2 contains three chapters. The first chapter is contributed by Carlyle Thayer, a well-known scholar in international relations and strategic studies. The chapter discusses the political implications of two major issues: (1) contending interpretations of the 1982 United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), particularly as it applies to military activities in exclusive economic zones (EEZ), and (2) current trends in naval modernisation, especially the expansion of submarine fleets and new military technologies that raise the risk of armed confrontation. The chapter argues that safety of navigation is threatened in the near term by state behaviour in disputed waters and states’ EEZs and also argues that safety of navigation is threatened in the long-term by the undermining of international legal regimes fuelled by inter-state rivalry in the maritime domain. The chapter concludes with proposals to strengthen international legal regimes and moderate inter-state rivalry.

      The second chapter, contributed by Donald R. Rothwell, one of the world’s leading scholars in international law, is about compulsory pilotage, a key issue concerning the safety of navigation. According to Rothwell, the safety of navigation is an essential aspect of the maintenance of international trade and commerce and is well established in multiple international legal frameworks. However, in recent decades, as coastal states have begun to raise environmental and security concerns, navigational freedoms have been subject to constraint, often based upon the need for the safety of navigation. This has been reflected in initiatives by Australia to promote compulsory pilotage in the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait, and other related initiatives such as vessel traffic systems within major waterways in addition to ports and harbours. This chapter considers how comfortably some of the initiatives by relevant coastal states sit with UNCLOS and whether what has been occurring is jurisdictional creeping or whether the freedom of navigation is just coming under greater forms of control.

      The final chapter in Part 1 is contributed by Keyuan Zou, one of the editors of this book. It addresses the legal issues arising from state practices in the implementation of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea governing marine scientific research relating to the safety of navigation in the Asia-Pacific region. The Convention has a whole chapter on marine scientific research, but there is no clear-cut definition of it, thus causing different interpretations by different countries. For example, scientific research activities in the view of one country may be regarded as freedom of navigation by another country. Related is hydrographic surveying which, when undertaken for military purposes, remains a grey area in international law. What complicates the issue further is the dichotomy of the legal status of the EEZ, a maritime zone within national jurisdiction but subject to freedoms of high seas. It concludes that the world community needs to find a way to conciliate different state practices in this respect and enhance the rule of law in the ocean.

      Part 3 contains chapters on national perspectives. The first chapter addresses state practice of the Republic of Korea (South Korea). According to Seokwoo Lee, professor of international law, the sea plays an important role in South Korea’s economy and security, and so keeping order at sea is a vital priority for the country. Of particular economic concern are issues such as piracy and armed robbery against ships and the depletion of fish stocks. South Korea has joined various bilateral, regional and international cooperation agreements to address these issues. Moreover, South Korea has territorial disputes with Japan over the Dokdo/ Takeshima Islet and with China over the Ieodo/Suyan Rock, which has sofar led to little progress in maritime boundary delimitation negotiations between South Korea and these two countries. In terms of maritime security, South Korea is technically still at war with North Korea since hostilities during the Korean War were only halted by an armistice agreement in 1953. In particular, the issue of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program as well as the unresolved dispute over sea boundaries between the two countries in the West Sea (Yellow Sea), present serious challenges to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. After naval skirmishes in the West Sea in 1999, 2002 and 2009, tensions have escalated recently following the sinking of a South Korean navy corvette, the Cheonan, in March 2010. Additionally, South Korea’s participation in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) has been met with verbal threats of war by North Korea. Based on the above background, the first part of this chapter discusses some of the maritime challenges facing South Korea, with a particular focus on issues such as piracy and armed robbery against ships, depletion of fish stocks, the Proliferation Security Initiative, and the recent conflict over the sinking of the Cheonan. The second part of the chapter provides a status of territorial disputes and delimitation issues between South Korea and its neighbours followed by a brief summary of South Korea’s maritime priorities going forward.

      The Japanese perspective is provided in the second chapter of this part by Kazumine Akimoto, a senior researcher with the Ocean Policy Research Foundation. Japan supports the principle of the freedom of navigation. Under this principle, states have been developing maritime commerce and economies have prospered. The prerequisites for the freedom of navigation are the safety of navigation and international common understandings. Among the factors that frustrate the safety of navigation are transnational crimes such as piracy, armed robbery at sea, and maritime terrorism. These transnational crimes should be suppressed by responses of coastal states and flag states in accordance with UNCLOS or the 1988 Convention on the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA Convention), and by such international efforts as implemented in the Malacca-Singapore Strait and off the Somali coast. International common understandings, on the other hand, are a far more difficult issue. Free navigation embodied in the principle of freedom of the high seas is not an unlimited right. The freedom of navigation should be exercised under certain obligations and rules. However, there are different views among countries as to what obligations ships and aircraft should abide by and what kind of rules should be introduced in the sea areas under a country’s sovereign rights or jurisdictional rights. As the author opines, the Japanese government does not necessarily articulate its official position as to the navigation in the EEZ under a coastal state’s sovereign rights and jurisdictional

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