ENFORCEMENT AND OTHER PREVENTIVE MEASURES FOR PROTECTION OF UNDERSEA INFRASTRUCTURE : A RIGHT TO PROTECT USES OF OCEAN

◆Research Director Atsuko Kanehara participated in the Conference on International Law and the Protection of Submarine Cables and Pipelines: Multi-Dimensional Perspective which was held on the 16th and 17th of September 2025, in Singapore. The gist of her presentation and the PPT slides are as follows.

Recently, sabotage against submarine cables and pipelines has attracted serious concerns of the world. Frequently Taiwanese submarine cables were cut, and so this problem is with Japan’s keen interest.

With respect to intentional sabotage, which is different from accidental destruction of submarine cables and pipelines, international law has not provided enough legal basis to cope with it. This is an urgent agenda for international law.

To tackle the problem, “when someone’s right and property (submarine cables and pipelines) are destructed,” and “when the freedom of sea and the right to use sea which are given by international law are infringed,” it is totally natural and appropriate, and in accordance with common sense, to confer a right to respond against such harmful acts on the victim.

It is necessary to theoretically formulate such a right as “The Right to Protect Uses of Sea.” Such an idea of this author has been already issued at the HP of the Canon Institute for Global Studies. Such a right is an indispensable legal tool for coping with Houthi Rebels’ continued violent attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea, and the violent obstruction by the Sea Shepherd against Japan’s research whaling at high seas.

Based upon such an idea of “The Right to Protect Uses of Sea,” the author’s presentation, first, presupposed an entire sketch of “the international law of undersea infrastructure,” and then, by putting such a sketch under the framework limited to the law of the sea, provided succinct analysis of the principal issues.

◆The Related Works by Research Director Atsuko Kanehara

・“The Houthi Rebels’ Attack against Japan-Related Vessel in the Red Sea: An Idea of the Right to Protect Uses of Sea’”
https://cigs.canon/en/article/20241224_8535.html

・“Japan’s Request of Extradition of the Founder of Sea Shepherd: Recovery and Maintenance of the Common Interests of International Society and the Inherent Interests of Japan, a Sovereign State”
https://cigs.canon/en/article/20240826_8292.html