Isaac B. Kardon, China’s Law of the Sea: The New Rules of Global Order. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2023.

An in-depth examination of the law and geopolitics of China’s maritime disputes and their implications for the rules of the international law of the sea

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.

Pre-order from Yale University Press website
Pre-order from Yale University Press website

China’s Projected Navigational Map of the East Asian Littoral

This map is a hypothetical one — but it is a fair representation of the PRC’s rules for regulating navigation in the East China Sea, South China Sea, and Yellow Sea. Chapter 5 of the book analyzes whether and how China’s maritime practices are creating or enforcing new legal rules for international navigation in East Asian waters and beyond.

Figure 4 from China’s Law of the Sea

Praise for China’s Law of the Sea:

  • Chaguan, in the Economist

    “[Kardon’s] book is a fine, deeply researched guide to China’s efforts to subvert or reinterpret any principles that complicate its claims to more than four-fifths of the South China Sea. Citing Chinese official texts, Mr Kardon shows how the Communist Party sees international law as a “weapon”: a way to codify power relations between larger and smaller states, rather than a source of binding, universal norms.Description goes here

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  • Gary Roughead, Admiral, U.S. Navy (ret.), and former U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations

    “China’s maritime reach and activity will continue to be components of its ambition and power. Isaac Kardon’s perspectives and keen insight into China’s view of maritime order are unmatched. China’s Law of the Sea is an essential read for everyone who depends on the maritime domain and for all who ponder China’s approach to regional and global order.”

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  • Jerome A. Cohen, Council on Foreign Relations

    “Now that China has the world’s largest navy, is it really a threat to the rules-based maritime order? Those who share this concern will find China’s Law of the Sea an essential analysis of Beijing’s practice as well as theory.”

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  • Thomas J. Christensen, Columbia University and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State

    “China’s contested maritime claims are a potential flashpoint for Asian conflict. Isaac Kardon systematically explains how China, in pursuing those claims, manipulates, disregards, or violates international legal norms in ways that could have global implications.”

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  • M. Taylor Fravel, director of the Security Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    “China’s rise as a maritime power is a defining element of its ascent. In this carefully researched and insightful book, Kardon documents China’s distinctive approach to the law of the sea that combines legal interpretations, bureaucratic mobilization, and maritime forces on the water. China’s Law of the Sea is a terrific contribution to the literature that illuminates China’s challenge to the international maritime order in East Asia and beyond.”

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  • Andrew Nathan, in Foreign Affairs

    “Kardon asks the right question: not whether China complies with the so-called rules-based international order but how China—like other countries—seeks to use or change international law to serve its interests. His technical but admirably clear study concerns Beijing’s approach to international maritime law, but his analysis can be extended further to other domains such as human rights and international trade law.”

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  • Peter Dutton, in Foreign Policy

    “But neither resource interests, security, nor status alone provide satisfactory explanations for Beijing’s behavior. Instead, as China analyst Isaac B. Kardon argues in his groundbreaking book, China’s Law of the Sea: The New Rules of Maritime Order, Beijing sees itself as fundamentally above the law and beyond accountability to others, especially smaller states. And while full-scale global change to the oceans regime is beyond China’s grasp, Kardon writes, Beijing’s actions may have consequences beyond its nearby waters.”

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  • Margaret M. Pearson, University of Maryland

    “Kardon seeks to correct a common misconception about China’s expansive maritime claims. Rather than simply flouting laws, the PRC has sought to minimize the weight of existing laws and shape new ones through its activities. The volume is a carefully argued and brilliant contribution to scholarship on the evolution of ‘global order.’”

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