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On 12 July 2016, the Arbitral Tribunal in the case between the Philippines and China delivered its award.1 The Tribunal's ruling represents a sweeping victory for the Philippines and fundamentally alters the international legal land, or more appropriately, seascape of the South China Sea. This article has three aims: first, to outline the character of the Tribunal and the status of its award; second to summarize the Tribunal's main findings; and third, to explore some of the potential implications of the award, both within and beyond the South China Sea.
The Tribunal and the Status of the Award
Both China and the Philippines are parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, or the Convention). Part XV of the Convention, which deals with the settlement of disputes, sets out a variety of "compulsory procedures entailing binding decisions" including arbitration in accordance with procedures contained in Annex VII.2 It is these provisions that the Philippines invoked to initiate the arbitration through a Statement of Claim of 22 January 2013.3 As the Tribunal arose from UNCLOS, sovereignty questions concerning disputed islands in the South China Sea were beyond its jurisdiction.
China rejected the initiation of the arbitration, arguing that the Tribunal lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case.4 Nonetheless, on the basis that both China and the Philippines are parties to UNCLOS, the Tribunal was duly constituted,5 with the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague acting as the registry for the case and venue for hearings. In light of China's challenge to its jurisdiction, the Tribunal bifurcated its proceedings, considering jurisdictional issues first. On 29 October 2015, in its Award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility,6 the Tribunal found that it had the required jurisdiction to proceed with the case with some jurisdictional issues held over to the merits phase of the proceedings.7 China refused to participate in the case directly,8 and although the Tribunal's award is "final and binding and without appeal",9 Beijing has robustly rejected it.10
Main Findings in the Award
Historic Rights and China's Nine-Dash Line
The nature and scope of China's claims within the so-called "ninedash line" depicted on Chinese maps of the South China Sea has been a longstanding source of ambiguity in the South China Sea...