The South China Sea Arbitration

Critique of the South China Sea Arbitration Award

It has been eight years since the South China Sea Arbitration Award was issued. China’s official position of "non-acceptance, non-participation and non-recognition" is widely known to the international community. In view of the current legal disputes and the dynamics in the South China Sea after it was issued, the Arbitration Award has an increasingly notable and negative impact on proper settlement of the disputes, maintenance of peace and stability in the South China Sea, healthy development of the bilateral relations between China and other claimant countries, and the ongoing consultations on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) between China and the ASEAN countries. This report takes stock of the essence of the disputes over the South China Sea, conducts analysis and rebuttal of the jurisdiction of the South China Sea Arbitration Award, the treaty interpretation and application of the Arbitration Award and the determination of facts in respect of historic rights, the status of outlying archipelagos of continental countries and the status of island, and the representativeness of the Arbitral Tribunal, which further exposes to the international community the fallacies of the Arbitration Award and its damage to the international rule of law.