Manila appears to be testing its relationship with Beijing as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte considers resuming energy exploration in the tension-laden South China Sea. Oil and gas drilling in the Reed Bank, located in the international waterway, has been suspended since 2014. That came after Manila launched an international arbitration case against Beijing over the […]
The Framework Code of Conduct, One Year After the Arbitration (Remarks delivered at the ADR Institute on 12 July 2017 on the 1st Anniversary of the Arbitral Ruling) Justice Antonio T. Carpio I. Introduction The historic arbitral ruling issued one year ago on 12 July 2016 was decided overwhelmingly in favor of the Philippines and […]
Hague decision’s value lies in its raising of Manila’s leverage On July 12 last year, an arbitral tribunal in The Hague handed the Philippines a sweeping victory in a case it filed challenging China’s expansive claims to the South China Sea. The tribunal struck down China’s “historic rights” to two-thirds of these waters. […]
Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey transits the South China Sea May 6, 2017. Tomorrow will be exactly a year since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarded the Philippines an important victory in its claims that China were encroaching it territorial integrity. This remains one of the most important lawsuit against […]
One year ago, on July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) announced that the South China Sea Arbitral Tribunal had issued a unanimous award in favour of the Philippines in the South China Sea (SCS) conflict. The legally binding award has demolished China’s expansive historical claims in the SCS and pointed out […]
On 12 July 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration delivered its long-awaited ruling on the protracted dispute between the Philippines and China. The PCA ruled in favor of the Philippines in 14 of its 15 claims against China in the South China Sea. To recap, here are a few of the court’s important findings: […]
BEIJING—President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to set aside the country’s arbitration victory against China over claims in the South China Sea may have deescalated the tension in disputed marine area but it has made the landmark ruling irrelevant, analysts say. Exactly a year after the tribunal under the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in […]
A year ago today, an arbitral tribunal formed pursuant to the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea issued a blockbuster award finding much of China’s conduct in the South China Sea in violation of international law. As I detailed that day on this blog and elsewhere, the Philippines won about as […]
Earlier this year, Kyodo News published a tantalizing summary of a Chinese article that seemed to offer rare insights into Beijing’s intentions in the South China Sea. Unfortunately, Kyodo’s report was too vague to be fully appreciated, or long-remembered. We have tracked down the original. It is well worth a closer look. The article comes […]
CHINA’S ANNUAL moratorium on commercial fishing in waters it claims, including the disputed South China Sea where the Philippines has sovereign rights, “bear(s) watching closely,” considering the “sometimes-violent” incidents in the course of that ban’s enforcement, a US think tank said. In a report dated July 7, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) of Washington’s […]