Richard Javad Heydarian

July 9, 2015

"Will the 21st century global order be led primarily by might and military muscle or rights and norms? We may get an answer in the near future.

The Philippines' quest for peacefully resolving territorial disputes in the South China Sea has entered a critical stage. After more than two years of hard work and extensive preparations, culminating in the thousand-page-long memorial, Manila has the chance to convince the arbitral tribunal at The Hague that its case deserves to be heard.

The ultimate aim is to ensure all claimant countries honor their treaty commitments under prevailing international legal regimes, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which has been ratified by the Philippines (1984) and China (2006) alike. The key hurdle, however, is the question of jurisdiction: That is to say, whether the arbitral tribunal, formed under the aegis of the UNCLOS, has the mandate to rule on the Philippines' case against China."

Read more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-javad-heydarian/china-vs-the-philippines_b_7766406.html

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