Abstract:
This paper is dedicated to scrutinising the problem of how the
term “Indo-Pacific” is conceptualised in the international law from
both linguistics and IR (International Relations) perspectives. The
relevance of the topic is defined by a growing number of corre-
sponding legal documents adopted by regional and external actors,
which in turn has an impact on the realm of international law. The
goal of the study consists in tracing back the peculiarities accompa-
nying the described process of conceptualisation. A brief literature
review demonstrates a clear lack of related analyses in the legal
dimension; the academic novelty can thus be substantiated by the
fact that the groups of sources of law introducing the “Indo-Pacif-
ic” concept are categorised in a hierarchical manner. From a meth-
odological point of view the paper is aimed at adding linguistics
and international law to the mix of disciplines that can assist in
comprehending the relatively recent phenomenon of “Indo-Pacif-
ic”, political science already being paramount among these. As
for the findings, it has been shown that bridging the gap between
the designated areas is in principle possible thanks to an interdis-
ciplinary approach, allowing thereby to create a multidimensional
image of the macroregion. Another associated inference concerns
the dynamics of how exactly the notion under discussion has been
rooting in the sources of international law: namely, this happened
due to a transfer from national legislation. The article is concluded
with the discussion on the evolution stages of incorporation of the term “Indo-Pacific” in the
international law, as well as recommended directions of further research
