The International Law Regime of Resolving Sovereign Disputes in the South China Sea: A Case Study of Joint Development Arrangement in the Tonkin Gulf

The paper examines the precedent value of the Tonkin Gulf case of maritime delimitation between China and Vietnam in facilitating the propagation of peaceful resolutions of sovereign disputes in the South China Sea through a perspective of United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea (UNCLOS). Despite China’s rhetoric adherence on its Joint Development Arrangement (JDA) proposals to shelve the maritime disputes, the establishment of an effective and institutionalized JDA regime backed up by a multitude of bilateral treaties and agreements over the Tonkin Gulf remain the sole successful example of shelving sovereign disputes through peaceful negotiations. Under such circumstance in which the prospects of most joint development proposals are stepping forward uncertainty for China’s growing assertiveness, it is requested that the Tonkin Gulf case can provide significant precedent value for other disputable areas in the South China Sea. The paper investigates the legitimation of JDA and highlights three key characteristics that the Tonkin Gulf pattern has enshrined, including the single delimitation principle and the notion of equidistance for boundary delimitation, the considerations from historical factors, the procedure of “due process”. Nevertheless, it finds that it remains unlikely that these three characteristics can be effectively fulfilled in other sovereign negotiations. Finally, the status quo over the Paracel Islands is examined as a real-world problem by highlighting the three characteristics.