A Workshop Held by Prof. Vivian Louis Forbes Took Place at SCSI, Xiamen University

On the afternoon of May 19th, an excellent workshop, sponsored by XMU South China Sea Institute, XMU College of Ocean & Earth Sciences, and XMU Coastal and Ocean Management Institute took place. Prof. Vivian Louis Forbes from the University of Western Australia hosted the workshop which was attended by Prof. Kuen-chen Fu, director of the South China Sea Institute, Prof. XUE Xiongzhi, deputy director of the Environmental Science Research Center, Prof. ZHANG Luoping, and Associate Prof. XU Ke.

Prof. Forbes began by discussing sovereignty disputes and maritime claims in the region between China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam. She then argued that the 1982 Convention did not deal with issues of territorial sovereignty until the 2008 International Court of Justice’s judgment on a dispute between Malaysia and Singapore which clearly distinguished between islands and rocks and laid out the extent to which either could be used in establishing maritime zones. Finally Prof. Forbes offered his her thoughts on what China could do to clarify its claims to sovereignty and jurisdiction in the South China Sea.

During the workshop, Prof. Fu led a discussion with Prof. Forbes about some controversial problems in the region.

At the end of the workshop, attendants raised a number of thought-provoking questions which Prof. Forbes answered seriously. In short, Prof. Forbes’ workshop provided a deep analysis of sovereignty disputes and maritime claims in the basin for professionals, practitioners and students who now look forward to the next two such workshops.

Editor: JIANG Dan, Yuan Ying, Tom Friedenbach