Navigating Undelimited Waters: States’ Rights and Obligations in Addressing Maritime Disputes, with a Focus on the East Sea

The phenomenon of coastal States pushing their boundaries further into the sea has resulted in the enlargement of maritime territories. Consequently, that has given rise to conflicts regarding the assertion of sovereignty and sovereign rights over overlapping maritime areas among these coastal States. As States intensify the extraction of resources from the waters, these already intricate disputes become further complicated. In the East Sea, most ASEAN countries, including Vietnam, still have unresolved maritime disputes with their neighboring nations.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) outlines obligations for concerned states, particularly in Articles 74(3) and 83(3). These include the duty to exert every effort to establish interim arrangements of a practical nature and to refrain from actions that could impede or obstruct the eventual attainment of a final agreement. However, the UNCLOS does not have a specific explanation for the above obligations, leading to the incomplete resolution of conflicts between States in the overlapping maritime areas, mainly when a State unilaterally undertakes law enforcement activities in the above maritime areas.

The article aims to elucidate the overlapping maritime areas in the context of the East Sea, thereby analyzing and exploring the rights and responsibilities of coastal States in resolving disputes in undelimited maritime areas. Examining the legal frameworks, maritime territorial claims, and mechanisms for dispute resolution becomes imperative in understanding the complexities of this region.