POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY QUARTERLY, Vol. 5, No. 1, January 1986,95-100

Book reviews

Coastal States, Regional Powers, Superpowers and the Makma-Singapore Straits, Y. Y. I. Vertzberger, Institute of East Asian Studies, Research Papers and Policy Studies 10, Uni- versity of California, Berkeley, 1984, 100 pp.

During the past decade the management of the Oceans by the international community has been the subject of protracted and complicated debate. One of the most difficult issues has been naviga- tion rights in international straits. The question was brought sharply into focus by the 1982 United Nations Treaty on the Law of the Sea which will extend territorial waters to 12 nautical miles when it comes into force. As a result, at least part of all the world’s 120 international straits will come under the jurisdiction of coastal states. Among these the Malacca-Singapore Straits linking the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea are arguably the most important. The Malacca Strait is 500 miles long and 10 to 220 miles wide. At three points the seaway falls entirely within the territorial seas of Indonesia and Malaysia. The alternative routes via the Sunda, Lombok, Makassar and Omba Wetar Straits (all of which are in Indonesian archipelagic waters) add some 1200 miles or three days’ sailing to the sea route to Japan. Small wonder that the Malacca Strait is among the busiest straits in the world (15000 ships in 1980) in spite of its shallowness and other hazards to navigation, including poor visibility in heavy rain. The coastal states witnessed a major eco- logical disaster in 197 5 when the Japanese tanker Showa Maru ran aground, and similar accidents are feared in the future.

In this monograph Dr Vertzberg (of the Department of International Relations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) presents a succinct analysis of the geopolitics of the Malacca- Singapore Straits region. The actors discussed are the littoral states of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, the regional powers (China and Japan) and the superpowers (the USA and USSR). The ability of the littorals to use the straits as a bargaining chip with the powers and superpowers has been demonstrated in the past. At the same time the importance of the Strait to the outside powers is increasing, and for these reasons it is likely to remain a focal point for future power struggles. The author does not believe that

ratification of the 1982 Law of the Sea Treaty will automatically resolve the conflicts. Although the concept of ‘transit passage’ has been incorpo- rated (Article 38) to protect shipping using inter- national straits, its usefulness has yet to be proved. Moreover, the interests of the states using the Malacca Strait vary considerably. The littorals would probably like to revive their 1972 proposal to limit the size of tankers to 200000 tons, and to require warships to obtain prior consent before transit. For Japan, the straits are a lifeline carrying 90 per cent of Japanese imported oil and substantial proportions of imported raw materials and food. Restrictions on shipping through the straits are therefore resisted, but Japan also has strong economic interests in the littoral states and cannot afford a major confrontation. The Soviet Union and the United States rely heavily on the Malacca Straits for their global naval mobility, and the discussion of its strategic importance to both superpowers is one of the most valuable aspects of this study. China’s attitude is also given close attention. Initially a champion of the rights of coastal states to regulate their own waters, China’s view is apparently changing in response to fears of growing Soviet naval influence in South East Asia, and the development of a Chinese blue-water navy. One possible solution to these conflicting interests might be the construction of a 60-mile canal (or oil pipeline) across the Kra isthmus, but Vertz- berger does not believe this will happen, not least because of the security and other problems it would pose for Thailand.

This is a splendidly written and admirably documented monograph which will be of con- siderable interest to political geographers, not only those interested in South East Asia. The Malacca-Singapore Straits provide a fine example of the connections between local, regional and global politics in the struggle to control international straits. The author might have elaborated this idea to good effect with reference to other examples. It would also have been useful to see Malacca given some global comparison with Dover, Gibraltar, Hormuz and others to highlight its undoubted importance. With this addition, an extra map or two, and some more facts and figures on shipping, it would provide an almost ideal model for studies of this kind on international straits. As it is, this is a

96 Book reviews

marvellous addition to the growing literature on the subject.

Gerald Blake Department of ~5g~ap~y Uniuersity of Durham

Water Resources, Geography and Law, 0. P. Matthews, Association of American Geo- graphers, Resource Publications in Geography, W~hin~on IX, 1984,82 pp.

The recent research of Gordon Clark, R. J. Johnston, Otis Templer, Rutherford Platt and other scholars has called to the attention of geographers the importance of formal legal institutions and procedures in the resolution of societal conflicts. The law and its interpretations have proven critical to the m~agern~t of con- troversies as diverse as apportionment, zoning and urbanization, civil rights, income distribu- tion, economic development and, the manage- ment of natural resources and the environment. In an era of expanding concerns regarding scarcity and pollution of water supplies, a large inter~s~plin~ literature regarding the role of law and legal institutions in Watt-r~ources management has emerged. This book, one of the Association of American Geographers’ Resource Publications, is an introduction to the legal and geographic literature on selected water-resources law issues in the United States. Olen Paul Matthews, one of a small but growing number of professional geographers with formal legal training, discusses the historical development and current applications of American water law.

The book is divided into six chapters. The opening chapter is devoted to the hydrologic cycle and its legal ramifications, and the second presents a model of law as applied to resources confhcts. The next three chapters deal with specific problems in cont~~~~ water law, and the final chapter is devoted to a brief discussion of future policy issues and research directions.

The first chapter uses examples to illustrate how fundamental legal issues differ at different stages of the hydrologic cycle. Although the author recognizes that a detailed discussion of the hydrologic cycle is impossible in this short volume, a brief non-technical discussion of the physical relationships among atmospheric moisture, rainfall, runoff, streamflow and groundwater would have been valuable to readers who lack formal training in hydrology, in order that these legal issues be placed in context.

In the second chapter, the author describes a model of law, society and resources derived from Easton’s systems-theoretic approach to political

action, which focuses on governmental institu- tions as arenas for the resolution of conflicts between competing interest groups. However, the discussion of American legal institutions within the context of this model is primarily descriptive, rather than critical. This section would be more substantial and meaningful had the author incorporated recent political- geographic scholarship that traces the impacts of political-economic processes and developments on legal institutions, and had he then discussed the specific impacts of these relations~~ on the development and interpretation of American water-resources law, the subject of the remaining chapters.

Public use of streams, rivers and lakes is the topic of the third chapter, which traces the concept of public access to water supplies to its Roman, French. Spanish and English origins. This discussion is followed by a review of state and federal court decisions concerning the defini- tion of navigability as a necessary condition for public water access. The fourth chapter tackles the complex issue of private and public water allocation rights at both state and federal levels. It includes informative discussions of two recent landmark Supreme Court decisions: Spot-base v. ~e~aska, which defines water as an article of interstate commerce, and El Paso v. Reynorids which overturned a New Mexico ban on export- ing scarce groundwater supplies to other states. Chapter 5 is concerned with the resolution of boundary disputes arising from gradual or sudden shifts in watercourses. As in previous chapters, most of the text is devoted to description of important court decisions. Throughout these chapters, the author appears overly cognizant of page limitations, and consequently omits the introductory paragraphs, transition sentences and concluding paragraphs that would enable these specific decisions to be viewed within a larger conceptual framework. Moreover, the author does not attempt to locate these issues within the systems-analytic model of legal processes introduced in Chapter 2. A short con- cluding chapter identifies major themes for future research. Essentially, the author advocates a con- tinuation of the types of research described in the volume; again, a critical dimension in the author’s thinking appears lacking. Even at this introductory level, such a critical dimension is essential if students are to grasp the importance of law as a major element in conflict resolution.

Although Matthews is to be commended for the ambitious task of tackling the complex subject of water law and its impacts on the management of this critical resource, the book is not without some major weaknesses. While the author realizes that a comprehensive treatment of