evidence: Importantly, this analysis of Malaysian and Brunei claims in the Spratly archipelago was not undertaken as a prelude to a recommendation that the United States depart from its long held position of not taking a position on competing sovereignty claims in the South China Sea. That is not the intent of these legal analyses, nor is it one of the recommendations of the project. [...] This would be true if either China or Vietnam’s claims to the entire Spratly archipelago were judged to be superior. However, as Captain Roach points out in his findings, that depends on whether sovereignty over the entire Spratly archipelago ( spread over some 164,000 square miles of ocean) is based on considering the Spratlys as a single territorial unit, or if, because of its sprawl and remoteness, occupation by Malaysia of discrete previous unoccupied features could be legitimate. This is only one of the many issues an arbitral tribunal would have to sort out; in the remote chance that all of the contesting parties ever agreed to seek arbitration. Regarding Brunei, there is only one feature in the Spratlys that Brunei claims, Louisa Reef. The basis for this claim is that it is on Brunei’s continental shelf; the same rationale that Malaysia used to for its claims to Spratly features. In fact, Malaysia in the past had also claimed Louisa Reef, but has apparently quietly dropped that claim given that its neighbor’s rationale is identical to its own. Since that feature is considered part of the Spratly claim that means that both China and Vietnam also claim Louisa Reef.