Abstract
The chapter assesses the resource needs of the East Asian claimant states and discusses how their quest for and acquisition of natural resources has been influenced by international law. The East Asian states have increasingly turned to the sea in the hope of securing access to their living and non-living resources. For example, China is currently the world’s largest consumer of marine resources and its economic growth is dependent on maintaining a secure supply of hydrocarbon resources. Significantly, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has allowed coastal states to claim sovereignty rights to living and non-living natural resources in their exclusive economic zones (EEZ) and to the sedentary and non-living resources in their continental shelves.
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Notes
Robyn Lim (2003) The Geopolitics of East Asia (New York: Routledge), p. 155.
For a discussion on fisheries in Southeast Asia, see J. G. Butcher (2004) The Closing of the Frontier–A History of the Marine Fisheries of Southeast Asia c. 1850–2000 (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies).
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Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (2012) The Southeast Asian State of Fisheries and Aquaculture 2012, p. 21.
Global Agriculture Information Network (2011) People’s Republic of China Annual Fishery Products, p. 4
‘Japan Targets Greater Self-Sufficiency’ (3 November 2010), (available at http://www.worldfishing.net/features101/new-horizons/japan-targetsgreater-self-sufficiency).
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See for example D. Rosenberg (2009) ‘Fisheries Management in the South China Sea’, in S. Bateman and R. Emmers (eds) Security and International Politics in the South China Sea: Towards a Cooperative Management Regime (London: Routledge), pp. 61–79.
Agence France-Press (30 May 2011) ‘Philippines Arrests 122 Vietnamese Fishermen’, (available at http://globalnation.inquirer.net/2684/philippinesarrests-122-vietnamese-fishermen).
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M. T. Klare (2001) Resource Wars (New York: Henry Holt and Company LLC), p. 115.
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Klare, Resource Wars, p. 113.
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While Indonesia remains the largest oil producing country in Southeast Asia, it became a net importer of the commodity in 2006.
See R. M. M. Wallace (1992) International Law, 2nd edn (London: Sweet & Maxwell), pp. 128–165.
See R. R. Churchill and A. V. Low (1999) The Law of the Sea, 3rd edn (Manchester: Manchester University Press), pp. 454–456.
S. Bateman (Fall 2007) ‘UNCLOS and its Limitations as the Foundation for a Regional Maritime Security Regime’, The Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, vol. 19 (3), pp. 53–54.
See article 57 of the 1982 UNCLOS Convention in the United Nations (1983) Official Text of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea with Annexes and Index (New York: United Nations).
See C. K. Kim (2004) Issues and Disputes on the Delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Between Korea and Japan, and Between Korea and China (Thesis submitted to the School of Marine Affairs, University of Washington, Seattle), p. 4.
See article 121 (3) of the 1982 UNCLOS Convention.
Refer to article 121 (3) of the 1982 UNCLOS Convention.
See V. Prescott and C. Schofield (2005) The Maritime Political Boundaries, 2nd edn (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers), p. 76.
L. Buszynski and I. Sazlan (2007) ‘Maritime Claims and Energy Cooperation in the South China Sea’, Contemporary Southeast Asia, vol. 29 (1), p. 147.
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© 2013 Ralf Emmers
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Emmers, R. (2013). Natural Resources and International Law. In: Resource Management and Contested Territories in East Asia. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137310149_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137310149_2
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