Academic: Tribunal has no jurisdiction right

An arbitration tribunal would be wrong to decide in the Philippines' favor over claims it has brought unilaterally against China regarding South China Sea issues, according to a professor at Oxford University.

Manila has packaged its case to persuade the arbitrators that it lies within the tribunal's jurisdiction, when it does not have this right, according to Antonios Tzanakopoulos, associate professor of public international law at the British university.

He told China Daily in an exclusive interview there is little doubt that the claims made by the Philippines and the dispute are over sovereignty, a matter over which the tribunal does not have jurisdiction.