I posted too soon. Yesterday I noted that relations between China and the Philippines had calmed down a bit in the South China Sea. Today, the BBC reports (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18842839) that a Chinese naval frigate was stranded on one of the disputed shoals. The same article gives a nice map of the disputed territories.
UNCLOS refers to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas. As you can see, the Chinese claim, based on Chinese history is quite different from International Law as it is presently understood. To be fair to the Chinese, however, there are many similar claims by many other nations as well.
A legal commission in Israel, appointed by Prime Minister Netanyahu, has decided that Israel is not an “occupying power” in the West Bank. The commission based its conclusions on many grounds, but it essentially argued that too much time has passed since 1967 to regard Israeli control as “external.” Stephen Walt, a longstanding critic of Israel’s occupation, has an important critic of this position in Foreign Policy. (http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/07/12/the_veil_falls)
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