Identification of Disputed Marine Areas in the Spratly Islands Area: A Starting Point for International Governance

Lecture by Xuechan Ma
Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University

13 January 2018, 3:15 p.m.
Room 3.07, Institute of East Asian Studies University of Cologne

This presentation investigates international governance of disputed marine areas especially in respect of the regulation regarding unilateral activities and future cooperation. Moreover, the Spratly Islands area is used as an example to show how such international governance can be applied to a specific case. It will be addressed how to identify the existence and geographical scope of a disputed marine area. In terms of the Spratly Islands area the 2016 arbitral award of the Philippines v. China case may invalidate some claims alleged by States parties to the maritime dispute and thus have an impact on the identification of both the existence and geographical scope of disputed marine areas.

Xuechan Ma is PhD candidate and a staff member of the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Leiden University. She holds LLB and LLM degrees from Peking University. She worked as a legal intern with Judge Liu Daqun at the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.