Abstract
The failure of talks between China and Japan to solve the dispute over maritime delimitation in the East China Sea reveals the absence of a workable dispute-resolving framework to guarantee a settlement. This article, based on the settlement system under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the International Court of Justice case law, States’ practice and the political background of the disputes in the East China Sea, analyses the possibility of a framework involving a third party to end the Sino-Japanese row over maritime delimitation.