JEAIL > Volume 18(2); 2025 > Regional Focus & Controversies
Research Paper
Published online: November 30, 2025
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14330/jeail.2025.18.2.05

The CLCS and South China Sea Continental Shelf Disputes: Legal Strategies, Practical Challenges, and China’s Response

Ran Guo & Yanlin Zhou
Shanghai Maritime University
1550 Haigang Ave, Pudong District, Shanghai, P. R. China 201306.
Corresponding Author: guoran@shmtu.edu.cn

ⓒ Copyright YIJUN Institute of International Law
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Abstract
Five countries have made submissions for an extended continental shelf in the South China Sea (SCS) to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), fuelling tensions and disputes with China. As the CLCS’ decision to consider and qualify these submissions may have a far-reaching impact on the settlement of territorial and maritime disputes in the region, comprehensive understanding and analysis of the CLCS’ strategies in managing “submissions involving land or maritime disputes” in practice is needed. China’s notes verbales contesting the submissions may not stop the CLCS from considering these submissions. Therefore, to ensure that its interests are respected, China should amend its notes verbales by: (1) identifying the ‘dispute’; (2) clarifying its status as party to the ‘dispute’; (3) expressing “not consent” and requesting the CLCS “not to consider or qualify” any of the submissions; and (4) clarifying the legal scope of waters in the SCS.

Keywords : Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), Limits of the Continental Shelf beyond 200 nm, South China Sea (SCS), CLCS Rules of Procedure (RoP)

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