South China Sea legal battle hots up
Published on Dec 18, 2014 8:37 AM
People viewing one of two of Vietnam's Russian-built missile-guided frigates docked at a bay in Manila on Nov 25, 2014. Vietnam's two most powerful warships were making their first port call to the Philippines but an official said it was not trying to challenge China's superior naval forces.
By Richard Javad Heydarian, For The Straits Times
The historic legal battle between the Philippines and China over disputed territories in the South China Sea has
entered a new phase. There are renewed risks of escalation. In recent days,
China, the United States and Vietnam have all expressed their position on the legal aspects of the maritime spats in the Western Pacific.
China reiterated its outright opposition to any form of third party arbitration vis-a-vis sovereignty disputes in the South China Sea by releasing a position paper on Dec 7, which contains three major arguments.
First, Beijing contends that the special arbitral tribunal at The Hague, where the Philippines filed a memorial earlier this year, has no jurisdiction over the issue, since the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) does not accord it the mandate to address what are essentially sovereignty-related issues. Although China is a signatory to Unclos, it has exercised its right (under Article 298) to absolve itself of any compulsory arbitration (under Article 287 and Annex VII) over territorial delimitation issues, among other things.
Second, China maintains that, based on supposed "historical rights", it exercises "inherent and indisputable" sovereignty over the disputed features, including those that fall well within the Philippines' 200 nautical miles Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Third, Beijing asserts that the Philippines violated prior bilateral and multilateral agreements (that is, the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, known as the DoC) by initiating a compulsory arbitration procedure under Unclos.
Interestingly, the position paper was released a week before the Monday deadline for China to submit its formal position, or defence, to the arbitral tribunal.
The Philippines, in response, maintains that it is China that has violated the DoC by unilaterally altering the status quo through expansive construction activities, widening paramilitary patrols and coercive behaviour within the South-east Asian country's EEZ, specifically in the Scarborough Shoal in 2012 and, more recently, in the Second Thomas Shoal.
The Philippines also maintains that the arbitral tribunal has the mandate to interpret the parameters of China's right to opt out of compulsory arbitration procedures. For the Philippines, its legal case is perfectly consistent with the mandate of the arbitration body, since its memorial focuses on whether China's notorious "nine-dashed-line" claim is consistent with international law, and the determination of the nature of disputed features (under Article 121) - specifically, whether they can be appropriated or occupied and generate their own respective territorial waters.
While
the US does not take a position on the sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, it has indirectly supported the Philippines by supporting the resolution of the disputes in accordance with international law as well as questioning the validity of China's claims.
The US State Department's position paper, released on Dec 5, has raised issues with the "nine-dashed-line" doctrine, arguing that China's expansive claims lack precision and consistency. After all, China has not unambiguously specified the exact coordinates of its territorial claims. It is not clear whether China claims much of the South China Sea, treating it as a virtual internal lake, or simply claims the land features in the area and their surrounding waters per se.
The US, similar to most independent legal experts, also maintains that China's claim to historical rights over the South China Sea waters is not consistent with international law. China has neither exercised continuous and uncontested sovereignty over the area, nor does the South China Sea - an artery of global trade, connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans - constitute a bay or any form of near-coastal water that can be appropriated based on historical rights-related claims.
In short, China's claims far exceed - if not entirely contradict - modern international law, specifically Unclos. Although the US is not a signatory to Unclos, it has observed the international convention in its naval operations.
To the surprise of many observers,
Vietnam joined the fray by submitting a position paper to the arbitral tribunal in The Hague last Friday, which contains three main points: It expressed its support for the Philippines' case; questioned the "nine-dashed-line" doctrine; and asked the arbitral tribunal to give due regard to Vietnam's rights and interests.
Vietnam's manoeuvre will most likely have no significant impact on the pending legal case between the Philippines and China, but it carries significant political implications. In recent months, Vietnam has been engaged in a sustained diplomatic effort to normalise relations with China and prevent another crisis in the disputed areas, especially in the light of the oil rig crisis in the South China Sea this year, which sparked huge protests in Vietnam and placed the two countries on the verge of armed confrontation.
Vietnam's bold threat to join the Philippines' legal efforts against China carries the risk of renewed tensions in the South China Sea and of undermining tenuous, but critical, diplomatic channels between Hanoi and Beijing. It seems, however, that Vietnam is hedging its bets by dangling the threat of joining a common legal front against China as a form of deterrence against further provocations in the future.
With both the Philippines and the US explicitly questioning China's expansive claims in recent months, Vietnam perhaps felt compelled to reiterate its position on the issue and underline its right to resort to existing international legal instruments to address potentially explosive territorial disputes.
Nonetheless, despite the unanimity of opinion and statements by Filipino, Vietnamese and American officials on the legal dimensions of China's claims in the South China Sea, it is far from clear whether Beijing will re-consider its policy in adjacent waters.
Ultimately, China could respond to growing international pressure by hardening its position. It can accelerate efforts at consolidating its claims on the ground, vehemently reject any unfavourable arbitration outcome as an affront to its national integrity, and impose sanctions on and/or diplomatically isolate the Philippines as a form of reprisal. After all, there are no existing compliance-enforcement mechanisms to compel China to act contrary to its position and interests.
stopinion@sph.com.sg
The writer is a political science professor at De La Salle University in the Philippines.
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