{"id":77074,"date":"2016-08-01T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T11:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=77074"},"modified":"2016-07-30T13:47:24","modified_gmt":"2016-07-30T12:47:24","slug":"is-it-an-island-or-a-rock-ruling-could-cost-u-s-a-huge-swath-of-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/08\/is-it-an-island-or-a-rock-ruling-could-cost-u-s-a-huge-swath-of-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"Is It an Island Or a Rock? Ruling Could Cost U.S. a Huge Swath of Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Chinese dispute has a ripple effect on exclusive economic zones around the world. <\/em><\/p>\n

\"Okinotorishima<\/a>

Okinotorishima is an island in Japan\u2019s economic zone. The Asahi Shimbun\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

28 Jul 2016 – <\/em>The U.S. and other coastal nations could lose millions of square nautical miles of ocean that are now in their exclusive economic zones. The loss would be an indirect result of an arbitration panel\u2019s ruling on China\u2019s dispute with the\u00a0Philippines in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Largely overlooked in the tribunal\u2019s July\u00a012 decision was a strict interpretation of which dry land is entitled to a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone\u2014the surrounding ocean where a nation has sole rights to fish, drill for oil, and search for minerals. While not a legal precedent, the 479-page ruling could influence other judges and arbitrators because of its rigorous argument. \u201cThese arbitrators knew that this case was being watched around the world,\u201d says Paul Reichler, a partner in law firm Foley Hoag and lead counsel for the\u00a0Philippines. \u201cThey wanted it to be as close to perfect as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"south<\/a><\/p>\n

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea doesn\u2019t allow nations to declare exclusive economic zones around \u201crocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own.\u201d What that\u2019s meant has never been clear. Many countries, including the U.S. and Japan, have claimed exclusive economic zones around tiny atolls and outcroppings of rock. The U.S. hasn\u2019t ratified the treaty because of opposition from congressional Republicans, who fear it would open the U.S. to lawsuits. But the U.S. \u201cscrupulously\u201d follows the treaty\u2019s provisions anyway, says James Kraska, a law professor at the U.S. Naval War College. Push could come to shove if another nation seeks to fish or drill or mine in waters surrounding some dinky U.S. rock.<\/p>\n

The tribunal concluded that having people live on an island doesn\u2019t prove habitability if food and water comes from elsewhere. Countries will \u201cnow have a greatly reduced incentive\u201d to fight over ownership of rocks if they no longer have exclusive zones, Kraska says. On the minus side, fisheries might be depleted quickly if countries lose the ability to curb fishing in these zones.<\/p>\n

The bottom line:<\/em><\/strong> An arbitration panel\u2019s definition of what an island is could undermine nations\u2019 claims of economic zones around rock outcroppings.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 bloomberg.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Chinese dispute has a ripple effect on exclusive economic zones around the world. The bottom line: An arbitration panel\u2019s definition of what an island is could undermine nations\u2019 claims of economic zones around rock outcroppings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}