By Daniel Wagner and Edsel Tupaz

December 12, 2014

"As a rising global power, and being the largest and most important economy and military power in Asia, China has had the luxury of being able to do more or less whatever it wants in challenging its neighbors over disputed land and sea claims -- knowing that in all likelihood, it would not be challenged. That has changed in recent years, with Japan vigorously contesting China's claim over the Senkaku Islands and the Philippines taking its claim over the Spratly Islands to international arbitration. China announced over the weekend it had no intention of participating in arbitration over the issue with the Philippines.

The Philippines' attempt to haul China to an international tribunal is a problem because it is invoking the very compulsory jurisdiction which China has disavowed since 2006. But even if the Philippine attempt to arbitrate fails, any marshaled argument can subsist, and that case may be fielded in other venues. If a military engagement were to ensue, the same case could be brought to the United Nations Security Council -- the principal repository of enforcement powers under the UN system. A state can be found to be in violation of a substantive legal norm even without a coercive or compulsory judgment in a given venue, provided, of course, that there is truth to the argument supporting a violation, and that it is acknowledged by an alternative venue."

Read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-wagner/chinas-challenge-in-the-s_b_6287158.html 

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