The July 12, 2016 Award of the Arbitral Tribunal was a landmark ruling for three reasons. First, the Arbitral Tribunal ruled that China’s so-called historic nine-dashed line cannot serve as legal basis to claim any part of the waters or resources of the South China Sea. China, like all other coastal states in the South China Sea, cannot claim maritime zones beyond what UNCLOS allows, that is, not exceeding 350 NM from the coastline. The result is that about 25 percent of the South China Sea are high seas, and all around the high seas are the exclusive economic zones of the adjacent coastal states. Of course, in the high seas and exclusive economic zones there is freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight as recognized under customary international law and UNCLOS.