The Research On The Jurisdiction Of The Annex Ⅶ.Arbitral Tribunal Under The United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea

So called as “law of the sea charter” and “one of the pillars of the modern maritime order”, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(hereinafter referred to as “Convention” or “UNCLOS”) provides a detailed dispute settlement mechanism in the Part XV to fully absorb the experience of the international dispute settlement; there are not only the traditional methods of dispute resolution, as well as a series of innovation, and the mandatory dispute settlement procedures is a major innovation, and Annex VII. arbitral tribunal is one of the compulsory dispute settlement procedures under the Convention. As a party to the Convention, China shall be bound by the compulsory dispute settlement mechanism of the Convention, however, China do not make a written declaration to choose one or more of the following means for the settlement of disputes in accordance with the provision of Article 287: the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and arbitral tribunal constituted in accordance with Annex VII and a special arbitral tribunal constituted in accordance with Annex VIII, thus, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention, most of our maritime disputes should be governed by the arbitral tribunal constituted in accordance with Annex VII. On 22 January 2013, the Republic of the Philippines instituted arbitral proceedings against the People’s Republic of China under Annex VII to the Convention, which is concerning maritime disputes settlement between China and other countries, so the research on the jurisdiction of arbitral tribunal under Annex VII is crucial to maintain our country’s maritime rights and interests.The author firstly states the basis, concept and characteristics of the arbitral tribunal’s jurisdiction, and carries out a detailed analysis of the relevant provisions of the tribunal’s jurisdiction, and according to the relevant practice, explains and demonstrates the jurisdiction of the Annex VII arbitral tribunal rules. Then combined with China’s specific conditions, from the arbitration of Philippines v. China, the author analyzes the affect of the tribunal’s jurisdiction over the settlement of our maritime disputes, trying to sum up some countermeasures to take advantage of the jurisdiction rules to settle maritime disputes and safeguard China’s maritime rights and interests. In this paper, four chapters have been devoted to explain tribunal’s jurisdiction.The first chapter analyzes the basis, meaning and characteristics of the tribunal’s jurisdiction, then explores the relationship between the arbitral tribunal constituted in accordance with Annex VII and the traditional arbitral tribunal, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the compulsory jurisdiction of International Court of Justice, and finally discusses the value of tribunal.The second chapter is the core of the whole thesis, tightly around the rules of tribunal’s jurisdiction. The author introduces three aspects of the rules of the tribunal’s jurisdiction, one is the preconditions of the establishment of tribunal’s jurisdiction, the other is the scope of the dispute that the tribunal has jurisdiction, three is the general procedural matters of the tribunal’s jurisdiction.The third chapter selects two representative cases, one is "Southern Tuna Case", the other is "Arctic Sunrise" Arbitration. Then the author analyzes that the specific rules of jurisdiction from a practical point of view is how to use and that the role and enlightenment of these cases to China.The fourth chapter focuses on how to use the jurisdiction rules of the arbitral tribunal to resolve disputes and maintain China’s maritime rights and interests. From the arbitration of Philippines v. China, the author first elaborates the whole story of Philippines instituting arbitral proceedings against China under Annex VII to the Convention, and discusses the position and proposition of Philippines and China about the tribunal’s jurisdiction. Next, from the international law perspective, the author carries on the analysis to demonstrate the Annex VII arbitral tribunal having no jurisdiction over the case. Finally, the author puts forward relevant measures to deal with the tribunal’s jurisdiction, i.e. China shall firmly maintain the current stance to maintain the maritime rights and interests, but in some areas of maritime disputes we can be subject to the jurisdiction of arbitral tribunal, and we shall take full advantage of the jurisdiction rules to safeguard our maritime rights and interests.Finally, the conclusion is the summary of the whole thesis.