TY - JOUR AU - Honniball, Arron N AB - 1. If one were to name a region for which the importance of a stable and shared maritime legal order had entered popular discourse it would surely be South East Asia. The challenges the law of the sea must address—amplified by regional geographic, political and legal interpretation complexities—remain of global, regional and national strategic, economic and cultural importance. This concise and timely edited volume succeeds in its aims to address a series of these contemporary and interconnected maritime challenges with an eye to the wider context of the Asia Pacific and beyond. 2. Indeed, the roots of this volume are found in a conference held in Australia in 2017, entitled, “The Law of the Sea in the Asia Pacific Region: Opportunities, Threats and Challenges”.1 1 The Law of the Sea in the Asia Pacific Region, Australian National University (2017) . This conference was hosted by the Australian National University (ANU) College of Law’s Centre for Military and Security Law and the United Services Institute of the Australian Capital Territory. The resulting 15 chapters and foreword of this volume were prepared by several conference speakers and other subsequently invited contributors (p. xxi), presenting the South East Asian legal scene as of January 2019 (p. xxiii). While the contributors predominantly undertake legal analyses they have drawn on further disciplines that the domestic actors implementing the law of the sea must also inevitably engage, such as maritime geography (chp. 3), natural sciences (chp. 6) and international relations (chp. 12). 3. The introductory chapter 1 provides the landscape of geographic, legal and maritime challenges that define the remainder of the book. This feeds nicely into the second chapter on regional contributions to the law of the sea as well as regional maritime claims and baselines which are contributing to unresolved maritime challenges. 4. Chapter 3 surveys the successes and remaining challenges in maritime delimitation for the region, whereby numerous overlapping claims result from the states’ close proximity, broad maritime claims and geographic complexities. Legal analysis is complemented by the extensive inclusion of maps and primary sources ordered on a subregional basis. 5. I would also highlight a number of further chapters address the broader role of law of the sea in the South East Asian region. This includes the chapters addressing the mostly consistent engagement with UNCLOS2 2 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, opened for signature 10 December 1982, 1833 UNTS 3 (entered into force 16 November 1994). by regional states (chp. 9), the importance of a rules based maritime order (chp. 12), the necessity for further binding regional cooperation (chp. 13), and finally the existing role/potential for positive maritime dispute resolution (chp. 14). 6. Readers interested in questions of UNCLOS interpretation will enjoy chapters 7 and 8. Saunders challenges the suitability of applying the Arbitral Tribunal’s use of “natural state” in the South China Sea Arbitration3 3 The South China Sea Arbitration (The Republic of Philippines v The People’s Republic of China), Award (12 July 2016) PCA 2013-19 (Arbitral Tribunal (UNCLOS, Annex VII)). when determining the status of a maritime feature under Article 121(3) of UNCLOS (chp. 7). McLaughlin provides a novel analysis of the under-researched area of states such as China using maritime militias, including the benefits for China, the legal uncertainties for other states and the avenues for applying the law of state responsibility (chp. 8). 7. Focusing on the promises of the book’s subtitle and introduction, the most significant maritime security threats in the region are described in chapter 4, including regional examples and a selection of legal developments. This is complemented by chapter 5 suggesting numerous links between the changing marine environment as a result of climate change and emerging maritime security vulnerabilities. Warner convincingly argues that the current regional responses are woefully inadequate, in particular considering the cumulative impacts. 8. These environmental impacts are further evident in chapter 6 discussing climate change in the Asia Pacific and the possible mitigation, adaptation and exploitation responses. The Pacific region’s leadership is contrasted with the current responses by Asia. 9. The question of navigational challenges and their essential links to security challenges are particularly addressed in chapters 10 and 11. Both contributions are rich in empirical examples which makes for strong and convincing contributions that question existing academic assumptions. 10. Overall, the value of this book lies in highlighting the interlinkages between security (chps. 4, 5), environmental (chps. 6, 7, 13) navigational (chps. 10, 11) and wider challenges (chps. 3, 8, 9, 15) in a single volume. This is a notable alternative to other books addressing law of the sea in South East Asia, which provide narrower but more detailed analysis of a thematic area, e.g. maritime security, or a particular regional development, e.g. The South China Sea Arbitration, or The Timor-Leste/Australia Conciliation.4 4 Conciliation between the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste and the Commonwealth of Australia, Report and Recommendations of the Compulsory Conciliation Commission between Timor-Leste and Australia on the Timor Sea (9 May 2018) PCA 2016-10 (Conciliation Commission (UNCLOS, Annex V)). The book succeeds in conveying the interlinked nature of regional successes and challenges, allowing the reader to identify numerous areas for additional research between the lines. This stimulation of further thoughts is surely the sign of an important and convincing contribution to the field. 11. The editors should also be commended on producing an edited volume which can be read as a coherent—and enjoyable—single product from cover-to-cover. Scope is left for debate amongst the contributors (e.g., p. 169). In my personal opinion, apart from one chapter, the quality of the contributions is consistently high. This coherence and consistency is in welcome contrast to many contemporary edited volumes in international law and it likely reflects the fact that many of the contributors have a history of collaborating together.5 5 E.g., Donald R. Rothwell, Alex G. Oude Elferink, Karen N. Scott, and Tim Stephens (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Law of the Sea (Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press, 2015). 12. However, I believe one missed opportunity for this publication, given its title, would have been to focus on the more overlooked but equally important successes and challenges for the law of the sea in South East Asia. As Stephens’ contribution rightly argues (p. 150), the South China Sea disputes do not define the South East Asia maritime region as a whole. And yet, the focal point of many chapters and therefore the conclusion’s “current challenges” (pp. 243-250) is the South China Sea. Several current other issues are highlighted as “horizon threats” (pp. 250-257). Given the abundance of volumes on the South China Sea one could steer future regional contributions to the other fertile academic grounds of South East Asia (as evident in the broader approaches of chps. 1–3, 9). This is not to say that these contributions are not novel or highly relevant to a region where the spotlight does remain on the South China Sea, but rather that this is a surprising choice given the promise of the volume’s title. 13. It would be unfair to suggest such a volume should be exhaustive,6 6 This book has notably different objectives to other more voluminous recent publications focused on the region, e.g. Simon Chesterman, Hisashi Owada, and Ben Saul (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of International Law in Asia and the Pacific (Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press, 2019). but this gap is perhaps most evident in the currently brief discussions of one of the most important regional bodies addressing maritime environmental and security challenges in South East Asia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). For example, the dynamism of ASEAN practice addressing maritime security when analyzed from the viewpoint of the law of the sea and contrasting South East Asian states’ ratification of relevant UN “counter-terrorism” Conventions or IMO Instruments would be at the core of this volume’s objectives. It is thus somewhat noticeable that as a whole greater attention is given to Pacific states practice than that of South East Asian regional or subregional bodies such as ASEAN, or the Cooperative Mechanism in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. 14. I would recommend this accessible volume to both those new to the field in search of the current regional state of the art, and those experienced researchers looking to contextualize their work in the wider regional maritime context. The sheer array of maritime developments, disputes and uncertainties discussed in this regional hotbed for the law of the sea will surely leave every reader with new knowledge and new reflections. Finally, the extensive sources cited provide eager readers with a springboard to delve deeper into a rich area that will continue to evolve. This volume provides an essential basis to contextually understand the continued evolution of law of the sea of South East Asia. © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model) TI - Donald R. Rothwell and David Letts (eds.), Law of the Sea in South East Asia: Environmental, Navigational and Security Challenges JF - Chinese Journal of International Law DO - 10.1093/chinesejil/jmz028 DA - 2019-09-01 UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/donald-r-rothwell-and-david-letts-eds-law-of-the-sea-in-south-east-x5Z7k0yN04 SP - 719 EP - 722 VL - 18 IS - 3 DP - DeepDyve ER -