UNCLOS
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Philippines South China Sea legal case against China gathers pace
ASEAN, Brunei, China, Code of Conduct, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nine Dash Line, Philippines, Russia, South China Sea Dispute, South Korea, UNCLOS, USA, Vietnam(Reuters) – The Philippines’ legal challenge against China’s claims in the South China Sea is gathering pace, emerging as a “proxy battle” over Beijing’s territorial reach. Manila has assembled a crack international legal team to fight its unprecedented arbitration case under the United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea – ignoring growing pressure […]
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The high costs of neglect and freedom
For today, I will cite and abridge the most important passages of Justice Antonio T. Carpio’s treatise — “The Rule of Law in the West Philippine Sea (WPS)” — for the reader to get a clear picture of where we stand legally versus China’s spurious claims. “In 1609, Hugo Grotius argued in his classic Mare […]
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China’s New Map: Just Another Dash?
ASEAN, China, Code of Conduct, Malaysia, Nine Dash Line, Philippines, South China Sea Dispute, Taiwan, Ten Dash Line, UNCLOS, VietnamThe recent publication of China’s new national map – which both re-affirms its historical claims to the South China Sea and incorporates a 10th ‘dash’ in the East China Sea, near Taiwan – has created ripples in Southeast Asia and beyond. Since the 10th dash is not, in fact, new, there is less novelty to […]
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History the Weak Link in Beijing’s Maritime Claims
Beijing’s claims to nearly all of the South China Sea are now embossed in new Chinese passports and official maps. Chinese leaders and foreign ministry spokespersons insist with increasing truculence that the islands, rocks, and reefs have been China’s “territory since ancient times.” Normally, the overlapping territorial claims to sovereignty and maritime boundaries ought to […]
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UN tribunal gives first order on Phl’s case vs China
MANILA, Philippines – The United Nation’s Arbitral Tribunal in the Hague has given the Philippines until March 30, 2014 to make all the necessary submissions in its case on the territorial dispute with China. The Arbitral Tribunal has issued its first Procedural Order, which establishes the initial timetable for the arbitration and adopting Rules of […]
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AFP: Up to 5 Chinese ships circling Panatag, Ayungin
MANILA, Philippines — Armed Forces chief Gen Emmanuel Bautista said 2 to 5 Chinese ships are circling the Ayungin (Second Thomas Shoal) and Panatag (Scarborough) shoals at any given time and some have gone as close as 2 nautical miles or about 4 kilometers to Ayungin. These are combinations of Chinese Maritime Surveillance (CMS) ships, […]
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Permanent Court of Arbitration Issuance on the Arbitration between the Republic of the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China: Arbitral Tribunal Establishes Rules of Procedure and Initial Timetable
The Arbitral Tribunal in the case brought by the Republic of the Philippines against the People’s Republic of China under Annex VII to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (“the Convention”), has issued its first Procedural Order, establishing the initial timetable for the arbitration and adopting Rules of Procedure. This follows […]
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MANILA, BEIJING, AND UNCLOS: A TEST CASE?
Introduction: International law and the South China Sea After a long summer replete with tensions and incidents in both the South China2 and East China Seas, the new year failed to bring renewed hopes for a peaceful resolution to the myriad territorial conflicts casting a shadow on the Asia-Pacific Region. Rather the contrary, renewed incidents, […]
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China’s maritime policy
I have written repeatedly about the need to resolve the West Philippines Sea dispute with China through litigation. At the time when the Department of Foreign Affairs was still debating internally on whether to submit the issue to arbitration or resolve it through diplomacy, I was already arguing that arbitration was the only option given […]
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China’s reservations
China has made three reservations to the compulsory and binding dispute settlement procedure of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Of these, only two appear to be relevant to the Philippine arbitral submission against China involving the West Philippine Sea. The first, a reservation on maritime delimitation, does not appear to be […]