On 14th May 2018, The South China Sea Arbitration Awards: A Critical Study (in Chinese and English), which is produced by the Chinese Society of International Law, is published by the Foreign Languages Press.
In January 2013, The Aquino III administration of the Philippines unilaterally initiated an arbitration on relevant dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea. The Tribunal rendered one award in October 2015 and another in July 2016. China believes that the Arbitral Tribunal has no jurisdiction over the relevant claims, has consistently maintained its position of non-acceptance and non-participation, and its objection to the Arbitration being pushed forward. Immediately upon the issuance of each award, China solemnly stated that the award is null and void, and that China did not and would not accept or recognize the awards.
As a national learned society, the Chinese Society of International Law has been closely following the Arbitration since the very beginning, as it involves a number of complicated and important legal issues. On the basis of international law including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and relevant international legal practices, and through a comprehensive and in-depth study, the Society has come to the view that the Arbitral Tribunal manifestly has no jurisdiction, and the Awards involving issues of the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, historic rights, the status of continental States' outlying archipelagos, the legality of China's relevant activities in the South China sea, are groundless both in fact and law.
The South China Sea Arbitration Awards: A Critical Study is simultaneously published by the Oxford University Press in the Chinese Journal of International Law in English as a special issue.
