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.

Antonios Tzanakopoulos, associate professor of public international law 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.

Tzanakopoulos said he believes the tribunal would be wrong to decide that it has jurisdiction over most of the claims made by the Philippines. His views, originally outlined in an article on the Social Science Research Network, have attracted wide attention.

"The dispute between the Philippines and China is obviously about sovereignty over maritime features in the South China Sea. Essentially, the Philippines' submissions challenge in one way or another the validity of the nine-dash-lines under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea," Tzanakopoulos said.

He was referring to a term used by China to define its area of sovereignty and relevant rights and interests in the South China Sea.

Tzanakopoulos said the claims made by the Philippines appear to be asking the tribunal to define the nature of certain maritime features, a matter over which it does not have jurisdiction.

The claims are packaged in such a way to give the tribunal an excuse to exercise jurisdiction over them, he said.

China has said it does not recognize the tribunal's "competence" in the sovereignty issue and will not accept its ruling.

"Instead of asking who owns these features, the Philippines has asked what the nature of these features is," Tzanakopoulos said.

"Is a particular feature an island, an islet, a low-tide elevation or a rock? But, in fact, definitions relating to these maritime features have significant implications for sovereignty issues."

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