By Liu Haiyang

July 4, 2016

"On June 29, the Permanent Court of Arbitration announced that the award of the South China Sea Arbitration initiated by the Philippines against China will be issued on July 12. The U.S. side has obviously prepared well for the upcoming decision. Besides a significant increase of military presence and operations, with more warships and aircraft in the South China Sea, the U.S. and its allies have also loudly raised their voices to urge China to respect the final decisions of the said arbitral tribunal. The general tone of the criticisms suggests that China’s non-compliance with the final ruling would amount to non-compliance with international law and as well as a show of contempt for the international rule of law. For its part, China has also stepped up its media campaign to defend its position of non-recognition of any ruling by the tribunal through more diplomatic efforts and academic symposiums.

While both sides may hype up or downplay the legal consequences of the forthcoming ruling, the heart of the question is the legal effect of the arbitral ruling in international law. To be more specific, will the award of the tribunal will be binding or not? How would the decision of an arbitral tribunal be implemented in international law? Is the non-recognition and non-implementation of decisions of an arbitral tribunal equivalent to non-compliance with international law? These are questions that need to be addressed - questions that will be politically exploited by both the U.S. and China to win the final battle before and even after the forthcoming ruling."

Read more:
http://www.chinausfocus.com/peace-security/south-china-sea-arbitration-shrouded-in-legal-fog/

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