KRAKOWSKIE STUDIA MIĘDZYNARODOWE
KRAKOW INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
XXI: 2024 | e-ISSN 2451-0610 | ISSN 1733-2680
https://doi.org/10.48269/2451-0610-ksm-2024-001
Rafał Czachor
Associate Professor, Jan Wyżykowski University
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5929-9719
Legal aspects of the territorial disputes in East Asia – an outline of current problems
Abstract
The following paper delves into the legal problems of the East Asian territorial disputes around islands located in the Japan Sea and the South China Sea (Takeshima/Dokdo, Senkaku Islands, Paracel Islands, and Spratly Islands). It discusses the content of the legal claims raised by every part of the disputes and critically assesses its validity under public international law. The paper concludes that the widely accepted legal mechanisms of settling territorial disputes rely on the UN Charter provisions of good faith and by peaceful means. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea does not fully regulate the issue of concurrent claims regarding maritime areas. What is more, the recent political developments that took place in the third decade of the 21st century allow us to assume that contemporary, Western-centric international law would not be effective in the resolution of these territorial disputes.
Key words: public international law, international law of the sea, territorial disputes in East Asia, political rivalry in East Asia