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"Studies of International Rulings on Territorial and Maritime Disputes" has been published as part of the research series among the Northeast Asian Foundation's list of publications. As a product of years of joint research by maritime legal experts that covers 31 major international cases involving disputes over islands, seas, or borders, including the latest ruling on the South China Sea in 2016, the publication is expected to serve as a guidebook to territorial and maritime research.

Expert Presentation of the Latest International Rulings

In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague made the ruling of the century on the dispute over the South China Sea between the Philippines and China. The ruling captured the attention of the international society and Korea in particular because the case reminded Koreans of Japan's constant provocations toward Korea, arguing that Korea should consent to taking the matter of Dokdo's sovereignty before the International Court of Justice. The ruling thereby boosted efforts in Korea to academically study international legal precedents on territorial, maritime disputes. Considering the geopolitical circumstances the Korean peninsula is placed under from being surrounded by sea on three sides, studying such cases and reviewing how international law and legal principles have been applied is likely to reveal significant implications for Korea.

Against this background, a group made only of experts in international maritime law together selected a total of 31 major cases on territorial or maritime-related issues, including the latest case involving the South China Sea, to jointly study and author papers that came to be published as a book. 15 rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), 15 rulings by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), and 1 ruling by the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) are classified by subject under three different chapters titled sovereignty over islands, maritime boundaries, and border disputes. The following introduces a detailed list of the cases covered in the book.

Chapter 1 deals with a total of eleven cases on sovereignty over islands including the Island of Palmas Case (PCA, 1928), the Clipperton Island Case (PCA, 1931), the Case on the Legal Status of Eastern Greenland (PCIJ, 1933), the Minquiers and Ecrehos Case (ICJ, 1953), the El Salvador/Honduras Case Concerning the Land, Island and Maritime Frontier Dispute (ICJ, 1990), the Eritrea/Yemen Case on Sovereignty and Maritime Delimitation in the Red Sea (PCA, 1998), the Kasikili/Sedudu Island Case (ICJ, 1999), the Qatar/Bahrain Case on Maritime Delimitation and Territorial Questions (ICJ, 2001), the Ligitan and Sipadan Case (ICJ, 2002), the Pedra Branca Case (ICJ, 2008), and the Philippines/China South China Sea Arbitration (PCA, 2016).

The four cases that are part of Chapter 2 on maritime boundaries are the Grisbådarna Case (PCA, 1909), the Cameroon/Nigeria Case on Land and Maritime Boundary (ICJ, 2002), the Nicaragua/Honduras Territorial and Maritime Dispute in the Caribbean Sea (ICJ, 2007), and the Romania/Ukraine Case on Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea (ICJ, 2009).

In Chapter 3 on border disputes are a total of sixteen cases including the Nicaragua/Honduras Case (PCA, 1906), the Costa Rica/Panama Arbitration (PCA, 1914), the Guatemala/Honduras Boundary Arbitration (PCA, 1933), the Pakistan/India Dispute on the Interpretation of the Bengal Boundary Commission's Report (PCA, 1950), the Belgium/Netherlands Case on Sovereignty Over Certain Frontier Land (ICJ, 1959), the Temple of Preah Vihear Case (ICJ, 1962), the Argentina/Chile Frontier Case (PCA, 1966), the Rann of Kutch Case (PCA, 1968), the Beagle Channel Arbitration (PCA, 1977), the Burkina Faso/Republic of Mali Frontier Dispute (ICJ, 1986), the Egypt/Israel Case Concerning the Location of Boundary Markers in Taba (PCA, 1988), the Nauru/Australia Case on Certain Phosphate Lands in Nauru (ICJ, 1992), the Argentina/Chile Case Concerning the Delimitation of the Frontier Line between Boundary Post 62 and Mount Fitzroy PCA, 1994), the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya/Chad Territorial Dispute (ICJ, 1994), the Eritrea/Ethiopia Border Delimitation Case (PCA, 2002), and the Benin/Niger Frontier Dispute (ICJ, 2005).

Faithful, Accessible Introduction to International Rulings

The authors’ initial plan was to publish a series of books providing complete Korean translations of international legal precedents that have not yet been introduced in Korea. However, the length of some rulings was long enough to require publication through multiple volumes. The authors therefore came up with a standard guideline for a book aiming to offer a translated version of the rulings that are accessible to those studying international rulings for the first time.

As a guidebook to territorial, maritime research, the typical format used to present case studies, in the order of facts, issues, decision, and commentary, has been adopted to analyze international rulings on territorial or maritime disputes and accessibly, systematically, faithfully describe the main points of each case. To take the Island of Palmas Case as an example, the first part on facts describes how a dispute over the island originated between the United States and the Netherlands and how the two countries arrived at a special agreement for the arbitration. The second part on issues involving the case points out the six arguments the two countries raised through the proceedings, while the third part presents the arbitrator’s view and decision regarding arguments made by each country. The fourth part offers commentary in relation to the definition of territorial sovereignty in international law, the continued, peaceful exercise of territorial sovereignty as grounds for effective control, the application of intertemporal law related to the retention of territorial sovereignty, and the duty to assure the coexistence of different interests worthy of legal protection.

The publication of this book was possible thanks to the hard work experts in international maritime law put in for the sake of protecting Korea’s territorial sovereignty and because the publisher Pakyoungsa recognized the merits of making available a guidebook for territorial, maritime research. Hopefully, the book may contribute to raising the academic level of not only experts on territorial and maritime issues, but that of those who actually professionally deal with such issues.