The trouble with Islands: the definition and role of Islands and rocks in maritime boundary delimitation

Islands have become a particularly troublesome feature of the maritime political land and seascape around the world in recent years. This is certainly the case in the East and Southeast Asian seas, which, in terms of the number and complexity of overlapping jurisdictional and sovereignty claims, comprise arguably the most keenly contested waters worldwide. Many of these disputes are linked to the presence of frequently small, remote and, at first glance, apparently worthless islands.