Unclos hinders rather than helps in sea dispute
In the dispute between China and the Philippines over South China Sea territory, dissenting views on the interpretation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) have caused animosity and confrontation, with no compromise or solution
If the objective of international law is to bring peace and order to the world, Unclos has delivered quite the opposite.
Its main flaw is the setting up of exclusive economic zones (EEZs) in the once-open sea. Territorial rights for any human society can be established only on land. Human societies have no right over spaces that exclude human settlements, such as the open sea.
It is reasonable, though, to set boundaries for entitlements to natural resources under the seabed extending from the coast. Coastal countries with overlapping EEZs should work out an equitable distribution of revenues from such resources, based on the percentage of areas overlapped. It might be desirable to grant China administrative rights, not amounting to sovereignty, to provide facilities such as lighthouses, shelters and docks to service all vessels in the area.
Robert Tang Hin Ching
(From The Straits Times/ANN)
