POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE: China’s Law of the Sea
This talk has been postponed until further notice
China’s Law of the Sea is the first comprehensive study of the law and geopolitics of China’s maritime disputes. It provides a rigorous empirical account of whether and how China is changing ‘the rules’ of international order – specifically, the international law of the sea.

Conflicts over specific rules lie at the heart of the disputes, which are about much more than sovereignty over islands and rocks in the South and East China Seas. Instead, the main contests concern the strategic maritime space associated with those islands. To consolidate control over this vital maritime space, China’s leaders have begun to implement ‘China’s law of the sea’: building domestic legal institutions, bureaucratic organizations, and a naval and maritime law enforcement apparatus to establish China’s preferred maritime rules on the water and in the diplomatic arena.

Isaac B. Kardon examines China’s laws and policies to defend, exploit, study, administer, surveil and patrol disputed waters. He also considers other claimants’ reactions to these Chinese practices, because other states must acquiesce for China’s preferences to become international rules. China’s maritime disputes offer unique insights into the nature and scope of China’s challenge to international order.

Isaac B. Kardon is senior fellow for China studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was formerly assistant professor at the US Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute. He is also a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an associate in research at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.
Date: 15 June 2023, 17:00 (Thursday, 8th week, Trinity 2023)
Venue: Dickson Poon Building, Canterbury Road OX2 6LU
Venue Details: Kin-ku Cheng Lecture Theatre (lower ground floor)
Speaker: Dr Isaac B Kardon (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
Organising department: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Organisers: Professor Denise van der Kamp (University of Oxford), Dr Yi Lu (University of Oxford), Dr Coraline Jortay (University of Oxford), Professor Henrietta Harrison (University of Oxford), Dr Chigusa Yamaura (University of Oxford), Dr Giulia Falato (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: information@chinese.ox.ac.uk
Host: Dr Chigusa Yamaura (University of Oxford)
Part of: China Studies Seminar series
Booking required?: Not required
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Clare Orchard