It analyses the legal issues arising from state practice in the implementation of the UNCLOS, particularly relating to the practice in East Asia, concerning maritime dispute settlement. It discusses the general legal framework including in the UNCLOS and how the states in East Asia solve their disputes in a peaceful manner. Unlike Europe or America, the Asian cultures are quite divergent. Such divergence has different impacts on attitudes and policies of Asian countries towards the settlement of disputes. It may also be an obstacle to the regional integration of effective control of disputes as well as to the general acceptance of the international judicial bodies whose foundation was based basically on Western legal systems. The questions about ‘the efficacy of future global initiatives that are perceived to be Western in origin and orientation, and how they can be amenably incorporated into the legal systems and cultures of non-Western countries’ should be timely and properly answered.