Developing Regional Rule of Law to Resolve Maritime Territorial Disputes Peacefully in East Asia

The international community has established various tribunals for the purpose of themaintenance of international peace, and the amicable resolution of disputes betweenand among states. However, East Asian countries are reluctantly and involuntarilyappear to the courts as respondents. I think there are some reasons such as : First, Asia has special and uniquecircumstances that make it hard for states to be regulated by the rules and the doctrinesemanated from Europe among similar-sized countries. Second, international law andinternational tribunals appear to them as products of heterogeneous western legalcultures. And they put quite considerable weight on their sovereignty and reputationdue to their colonial experience and Confucius traditions. Third, the development onthe standards of the maritime delimitation of international law is still ongoing andsometimes unpredictable. Finally, they do not have the consensus on regional harmonizationor unification for their survival and prosperity until yet. In this circumstances, there is a urgent reason to introduce the FrameworkAgreement of Regional Organization for their survival and prosperity. For that purposes,I suggest a few steps to realize a dream come true. First step, East Asia states need to build trust, by mutual understanding through thepast and reconciling for the future. Second step, maintain the status quo as possibleand prevent the worst case. Third step, founding a collective development consortiumamong relevant states. As a final step, establishing a Regional Organization in this area. I would like to propose an organization of “ASEAN plus other countries” as an initial model for the goal.