Research On The Philippines-China Arbitration Case In The South China Sea

Since ancient times, the South China Sea is China’s inherent territory. With the discovery of abundant oil and gas resources, the importance of the South China Sea begins to loom large in the eyes of our neighboring countries. The South China Sea issue is gradually becoming a complicated maritime dispute broad in scope, involving quite a number of countries. Among the dispute, the Philippines, an archipelagic state of Southeast Asia, located in the western Pacific Ocean, has always been covetous of China’s islands in the South China Sea because of its scarce resources and ocean-dependent economy. On January 22, 2013, disregarding China’s opposition, the Philippines submitted the South China Sea dispute to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea(herein after “ITLOS”) for arbitration. Its purported legal authority is the compulsory arbitration procedure under Annex Seven of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(herein after “UNCLOS”). However, whether this procedure can be applicable to solving disputes between countries on sovereignty over oceanic islands, whether the ITLOS has jurisdiction over this dispute, how did international courts or tribunals rule in relevant cases, and faced with the continued tensions over the South China Sea, what should China’s specific coping strategies be, all these above questions need consideration.This paper, as a study of a hot issue in today’s international community, in addition to its theoretical research value, has strong practical significance predicting the possibility that other neighboring countries having disputes with China on islands sovereignty and maritime delimitation may follow suit after the Philippines’ submission to international arbitration.In this paper, literature research, case analysis and comparative study will be employed for an in-depth analysis of the relevant questions in the South China Sea dispute between China and the Philippines.In addition to the introduction and conclusion part, the text of this paper is divided into three chapters. The first chapter is an overview of the dispute settlement mechanism under the UNCLOS. This chapter will first examine the procedures entailing non-binding decisions including negotiation and mediation under UNCLOS. Then it will study the compulsory procedures entailing binding decisions mainly including the ITLOS, the arbitral tribunal constituted in accordance with Appendix Seven and the special arbitral tribunal constituted in accordance with Appendix Eight. And this part will focus on the arbitral tribunal under UNCLOS, including its constitution and jurisdiction, mainly introducing the conditions of choosing arbitrators under the Appendix Seven of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, comparing the compulsory arbitration under the Appendix Seven of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea with the ordinary arbitration system, then carrying out further study on the basis of fully understand the compulsory arbitration. Next, it will study the limitations and exceptions to applicability of compulsory procedures entailing binding decisions. In this part, three small issues---compulsory mediation procedures, limitations and exceptions to applicability of compulsory procedures entailing binding decisions---will be analyzed. The last part will study the practice of arbitral tribunals including two cases--- the “case of Southern Blue Tuna” and “case of Barbados/Trinidad and Tobago Arbitration”.The second chapter will examine all appeals of Philippines presented to the arbitral tribunal in the case of Philippines v. China. The first part will give a holistic approach focusing on the appeals of Philippines. The second part will make a concrete analysis of each specific appeal of Philippines. The third part will analyze the illegality of the Philippines to bring the South China Sea issue to the arbitral tribunal, analyzing the limits of arbitral procedure and case scope, jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal.The third chapter will propose some coping strategies for China, and predict the finding of all appeals of Philippines presented to the arbitral tribunal in the case of Philippines v. China.