A Study On The Practice Of The Jurisdiction Of Compulsory Arbitration Under United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is one of the most important legal documents in the field of the law of the sea.In order to settle maritime disputes fairly and effectively,the UNCLOS provides for a dispute settlement mechanism in part XV.Included by part XV,Article 287 states that contracting parties can settle their disputes through the international Court of Justice,the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea,the Annex VII arbitral tribunal or the Annex VIII hoc arbitral tribunal.Annex VII arbitral tribunal is a kind of compulsory arbitration,which means that if a dispute meets specific requirements,one of the involved countries can submit it to the arbitral tribunal that can make judgments with binding force without the consent of other involved countries.Due to the convenience of its initiation,more and more countries have adopted the compulsory arbitration.However,speaking of whether the Annex VII compulsory arbitration has jurisdiction over a dispute in some cases,there have been many arguments between the involved contracting parties and the arbitral tribunal,since the compulsory arbitration has inherent and institutional problems in its jurisdiction.Therefore,the abuse of jurisdiction has occurred in the practice of compulsory arbitration,among which the South China Sea Arbitration between China and the Philippines has aroused the most concern in our country.In 2013,because of South China Sea dispute,the Philippines filed an arbitration claim with China in accordance with Annex VII.Although the Philippines finally won the case,China has always maintained that the Annex VII arbitral tribunal has no jurisdiction over the dispute.If the compulsory arbitral jurisdiction over the South China Sea cannot be vigorously defended by referring to international law,China's maritime rights and interests will be jeopardized in this case and other similar cases in the future.As a result of this,the author believes that it is significant to find out the actual exercising conditions of the compulsory arbitration and deeply dig out the inherent problems of its jurisdiction.And then,through case analysis,the author points out the common jurisdiction disputes that are easy to occur in practice.After that,the author draws two conclusions: firstly,it is a big problem how to judge whether there exists a peaceful means between the involved parties;secondly,according to Article 298,a state can declare in writing that it does not accept any one or more of the procedures provided for by part xv with respect to one or more of the particular categories of disputes,but there is no objective standard of an effective declare.This problem occurred in the Arctic Sunrise Case and the South China Sea Arbitration.There are two focuses of dispute in the South China Sea Arbitration.The first one is whether there exists an agreement about a peaceful means to settle the dispute between China and the Philippines,which can exclude the compulsory arbitration.The second one is whether China's declaration in 2006 can exclude the jurisdiction of the compulsory arbitration in accordance with Article 298 under the UNCLOS.In response to them,our country can make use of the compulsory arbitration's exercise conditions,so as to defend our interest: firstly,it is true that a Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in South China Sea is a political document,but according to the Vienna Convention,the title of the agreement has nothing to do with its essence,and its political characteristics has no negative impact on its legal nature.Moreover,this document was signed after the dispute occurred and agreed upon by all the involved countries,and its purpose of is to settle the disputes in the South China Sea peacefully.As a result,it can be regarded as an agreement which meets the requirement of Article 298.Secondly,the South China Sea Dispute essentially focuses on the sovereignty.However,the declaration in 2006 has already excluded such kind of disputes from the jurisdiction of the compulsory arbitration.This is why the declaration meets the requirement of Article 298 and can be excluded from the jurisdiction of the compulsory arbitration.As we can see,the entire compulsory arbitration process for the South China sea dispute has ended,and the arbitral tribunal ultimately stood by the side of the Philippines.But after that,other countries that have maritime rights disputes with China are likely to follow the example of the Philippines in the South China sea arbitration.Therefore,it is very important to take measures to deal with the jurisdiction of compulsory arbitration.Our country can defend its lawful maritime rights and interests on the basis of the existing national position and by using the provisions on the conditions for the exercise of compulsory arbitration jurisdiction as a defense.