FREEZE THE TROPICAL SEAS - AN ICE-COOL PRESCRIPTION FOR THE BURNING SPRATLY ISSUES

Recently, the Spratly crisis erupted again, This time, a Sino-Filipino military confrontation took place In the Philippines-claimed area of the archipelago, Although both sides demonstrated a high degree of sel f-control, the old problem remains and could explode again at any time , The reason for the latest episode is not difficult to understand, Pa st efforts only touched upon the tip of the iceberg, While calling for shelving of the sovereignty issue, they never indicated how this was to be brought about and very little progress has been made in the nego tiations in the past several years, The author submits that the only s olution, for the present at least, is the Antarctic formula, Although one might argue that the Antarctic regime, at first sight, does not fi t the Spratly situation, the legal foundation of the claims to the Spr atlies is comparable to that in the Antarctic case, Moreover, there ar e no sector claims in the disputed area, which makes the Antarctic app roach even more appropriate in the South China Sea. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd