Artificial Islands, Artificial Highways and Pirates: An East African Perspective on the South China Sea Disputes

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Author(s)
Bikundo, Edwin
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2017
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The United States promotes freedom of navigation in the South China Sea while China
constructs artificial islands in the same area to bolster up its territorial claims. Both
countries utilize their navies similarly but for opposed legal reasons. This reflects a
geopolitical contest with the United States championing a sea open to global navigation
and commerce while China builds a primarily land based ‘New Silk Road’ linking
it to critical markets and natural resources. That struggle between land and sea,
similarly as it were with piracy, encompasses both the law of the sea and international
criminal law. Reading Carl Schmitt’s ...
View more >The United States promotes freedom of navigation in the South China Sea while China constructs artificial islands in the same area to bolster up its territorial claims. Both countries utilize their navies similarly but for opposed legal reasons. This reflects a geopolitical contest with the United States championing a sea open to global navigation and commerce while China builds a primarily land based ‘New Silk Road’ linking it to critical markets and natural resources. That struggle between land and sea, similarly as it were with piracy, encompasses both the law of the sea and international criminal law. Reading Carl Schmitt’s Land and Sea in light of Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s Faust in the context of the various South China Sea disputes provides the opportunity to evaluate whether it may clarify geo-strategic issues at stake that Schmitt himself did not have the opportunity to consider when elaborating his notion of Nomos.
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View more >The United States promotes freedom of navigation in the South China Sea while China constructs artificial islands in the same area to bolster up its territorial claims. Both countries utilize their navies similarly but for opposed legal reasons. This reflects a geopolitical contest with the United States championing a sea open to global navigation and commerce while China builds a primarily land based ‘New Silk Road’ linking it to critical markets and natural resources. That struggle between land and sea, similarly as it were with piracy, encompasses both the law of the sea and international criminal law. Reading Carl Schmitt’s Land and Sea in light of Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s Faust in the context of the various South China Sea disputes provides the opportunity to evaluate whether it may clarify geo-strategic issues at stake that Schmitt himself did not have the opportunity to consider when elaborating his notion of Nomos.
View less >
Journal Title
Asia-Pacific Journal of Ocean Law and Policy
Volume
2
Copyright Statement
© 2017 Brill Academic Publishers. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
International Law (excl. International Trade Law)
History and Philosophy of the Humanities