Professor Bernard Oxman, Richard A. Hausler Professor of Law at the University of Miami School of Law, will discuss the situation in the South China Sea and the dispute among the countries surrounding it.  

The South China Sea is one of the most important seas in the world. Navigation routes of
global importance traverse it. Marine life abounds in its waters. Significant
hydrocarbon deposits are found in its seabed and subsoil. It has become the
object of complex legal disputes among the surrounding states: China to the
north, Viet Nam to the west, the Philippines to the east, and Malaysia, Brunei
and Indonesia to the south. All of these states are party to the UN Convention
on the Law of the Sea. It accords each of them sovereignty and more limited
sovereign rights over living and nonliving resources in defined maritime zones
extending seaward from its coast. These entitlements overlap and remain to be
delimited in many areas. Moreover, sovereignty over tiny islands within the
South China Sea is contested, as is the question of whether those islands
generate entitlements to sovereign rights over natural resources seaward of a
12-mile territorial sea. The status of other features is contested.  In connection with its assertions of
sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction, China has drawn maps showing a
dashed line around much of the South China Sea extending far from its
mainland.  Its claims and its
construction and drilling activities have been contested by other states in
diplomatic communications, and in a pending arbitration initiated by the
Philippines in which China has declined to participate. ASEAN proposals for a
binding Code of Conduct have yet to bear fruit.

This event is free and open to the public.