20,000 sign open letter on South China Sea ruling
Print Edition
MORE than 20,000 people have signed an open letter contesting the ruling in a South China Sea arbitration case by a tribunal in The Hague yesterday.
The 2,500-word letter, drafted by a group of young Chinese students currently studying international law in the Netherlands, slams the controversial case unilaterally initiated by the Philippines for its lack of legality, noting that the arbitral decision violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Shortly after the tribunal issued its ruling, the group sent the letter to the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea under the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, and asked that it be forwarded to all parties of the UNCLOS.
Copies of the letter were also sent to international judicial and arbitral organs, such as the International Criminal Court, the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, as well as major law schools across the world.
The letter has been posted online and circulated on social media platforms, inviting readers to participate and show solidarity against the ruling. It had collected over 20,000 signatures in less than two hours.
The letter criticizes the tribunal for ignoring the nature of the South China Sea disputes and ruling on a case over which it has no jurisdiction.
“The real disputes in the arbitration are those regarding territory and maritime delimitation,” it says. “With respect to the jurisdiction, the UNCLOS does not address territorial disputes, and delimitation disputes have been excluded from compulsory procedures by China’s declaration under Article 298.”
Therefore, the case demonstrates how the legal process is abused by one party to the dispute, and how the arbitral organ acts beyond its power, according to the letter.
“By obscuring the real disputes and bypassing the limits to compulsory procedures, the Philippines does abuse the legal process, the tribunal does exceed the state consent and act ultra vires (acts beyond one’s legal power or authority),” the letter says. “According to Article 296 (of the UNCLOS), the awards on jurisdiction and on merits will have no binding force whatsoever.”
Of the 8,000 or more Chinese students studying in the Netherlands, more than 100 are in faculties of law across the country. Those specializing in international law and the Law of the Sea set up a research group to draft the open letter.
“We cannot believe that such a bizarre case was able to keep advancing in The Hague, capital of international law,” said Peng Qinxuan, 29, a PhD candidate in international law at Utrecht University.
“In this case, the arbitrators failed to see the wood for the trees. But we scholars of international law have the duty to present the truth,” she said.
Peng and her peers spent three months drafting the letter in English and translating it into Chinese and Dutch.
Wang Zhili, another Utrecht University student, said: “In-depth articles with a neutral stance over the issue are really hard to find. That’s why we decided to post the letter online.”
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