The India-China Border Dispute: An Indian Perspective

Abstract

International law recognizes that boundaries are fundamental to the bases of national power and therefore projects various prescriptions for their protection as the demarcation lines of territorial integrity and exclusive control. By far the most important principle is that prohibiting the use of coercion in reshaping boundaries. This principle assumes, however, the effective application of other principles or norms for establishing and identifying boundaries. Fundamental general community policies require that states do not employ coercion in the settlement of boundary disputes, but rather make positive efforts to honor reasonable demands and expectations of other states concerning their political independence and territorial sovereignty. Effective implementation of these policies can be achieved only when states refrain from unilateral imposition of territorial claims upon other states and assert their freedom of decision in a way not to interfere with a comparable freedom of others.