China, Russia and the Law of the Sea in the 21st century: a study of the juridical strategies of the sino-russian Thalassocratic policy on the cases of Crimea, the South China Sea and the Arctic Council

Abstract

Since 2001, the sino-russian strategic cooperation strengthens the ties between Beijing and Moscow in military, economic and diplomatic realms. Nonetheless, an eventual alignment of international juridical strategies of both countries is still not much explored by the academy. With so, the present research investigates if this juridical orientation could have its roots on the maritime policy of both of these asian powers. In that way, this project aims at promoting reflections upon the possible thalassocratic aspirations of the maritime policies of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Russian Federation and its impacts on the juridical structure regarding the global maritime domains by mobilizing the critical theory of International Law and the constructivist approach of the International Relations. In order to do so, a qualitative research will be made, based on the documental analysis of primary and secondary data and on the study of the main cases with legal reverberation concerning the sino-russian ambitions. They are: the growing chinese strength on disputes regarding the sovereignty of the South China Sea, the de facto russian control of coastal regions de jure ukrainian and the relational dynamic of the two within the Arctic Coucnil. The importance of the study of the aforementioned geopolitics phenomena is given by the fact that this Asian Powers' protagonism can open place to a displacement of the global power axis capable of reformulating the International Law structure under a less-western perspective, shaped by Beijing and Moscow interests.