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Tribunal needs to correct its mistakes

By Sienho Yee | China Daily | Updated: 2016-07-07 07:52

The South China Sea arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines against China in The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration has violated many international standards of law and rules. To begin with, the arbitral tribunal does not properly identify or prove the existence of a real dispute. Also, the tribunal does not follow the world's principal legal systems.

The award on jurisdiction does not take proper cognizance of China's position. For example, China treats Nansha Islands as one single unit for the purpose of sovereignty, maritime rights as well as delimitation, but the tribunal has changed the singular "is" into the plural form "are", treating the islands and reefs in the Nansha Islands as separate units.

The award does not consider China's positions either, although it summarizes some of them superficially. For example, the tribunal summarizes China's argument that a 1995 joint statement saying the two countries would take measures with a view to "eventually negotiating" a settlement of their disputes as evincing an intent to choose negotiation only as the means to resolve disputes, but this point is absent from the part of the award called "the tribunal's decision".

Tribunal needs to correct its mistakes

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