Not All Battles Are Fought With Ships: The Legal Frontlines of the South China Sea Disputes

The South China Sea dispute is often portrayed as an intractable geopolitical conflict between China and Southeast Asian nations. Yet, through the lens of international law—particularly the law of the sea—a different picture emerges. In this Indo-Pacific Maritime Hour webinar, YCAPS will host Ms. Pham Ngoc Minh Trang, a research fellow at the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law (Germany). This talk reexamines the dispute not just as a political standoff, but as a legal challenge with structured rules, rights, and obligations. It explores how international legal principles, especially those under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), provide tools for peaceful dispute settlement and help clarify competing maritime claims. Special attention will be given to the ongoing tensions between the Philippines and China at Second Thomas Shoal, a flashpoint that underscores both the challenges and the continued relevance of legal frameworks in managing conflict at sea.

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Guest speaker

Ms. Pham Ngoc Minh Trang is a research fellow at the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law, based in Heidelberg, Germany. Her work at the Max Planck Foundation includes delivering capacity-building workshops on the law of the sea topics for officials from the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). Previously, she was a lecturer at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, part of Viet Nam National University. Trang was also a Fulbright visiting scholar at New York University in 2019 and a Nippon fellow at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in 2015. Her research and publications primarily focus on dispute settlement mechanisms in the law of the sea, with a particular emphasis on resolutions for the South China Sea disputes, and ocean governance in the Indo-Pacific region.

Moderator: Dr. John Bradford, YCAPS Executive Director

Format: This event will be off-the-record.

Webinar Cost: Free of charge