Chitchat Law experts say arbitration 'one-sided'

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Hundreds of legal scholars gathered in Hong Kong to discuss international maritime law and norms for settling disputes at a two day conference, which ended earlier Saturday. The South China Sea issue was a major discussion topic at the conference. Many participants questioned the authority and findings of an arbitration panel that released its opinion on the South China Sea earlier this week. Legal experts from around the world were in Hong Kong to discuss international norms for settling maritime disputes. The colloquium held a special panel on the controversial South China Sea arbitration. Experts and practitioners discussed a range of issues -- including territorial sovereignty, maritime entitlement, the application of international law and more. Most agreed that the arbitral tribunal in the Hague released a one-sided opinion on the South China Sea. "It is true that a lot was wrong with that award, anti-Chinese and pro-Philippines, especially when all the evidence is provided by one side. It was fundamentally a flawed system," said Prof. Myron Nordquist from University of Virginia. Academics have questioned the tribunal's authority to release an award on the South China Sea. The United Nations has clarified that the tribunal is not a UN agency. The credibility of the tribunal's judges have also come under scrutiny. "The tribunal consists of four European members, and one other member, who has been living in Europe. So this is a European tribunal making judgments for people living many thousands of miles away. So what do you expect? Two of the arbitrators had published views favorable to China before this. They changed their opinions without any explanation. Their lack of consistency violates the norms of international law," said Prof. Sienho Yee from Wuhan University. The Chinese government has called the arbitration a political farce and rejected its ruling as invalid. Experts have supported China’s stance. "China has repeated the issue which has been brought to the tribunal was excluded by the convention. China also send informal notices that it will not going to participate in the arbitration proceedings. So there is basis if China is not prepared to accept," said Abdul Gadire Koroma, Former Judge of Int'l Court of Justice. Analysts say both China and the Philippines are facing pressure to resolve the issue. There is still hope that their maritime disputes can be settled diplomatically. It’s the common wish of people on both sides that the troubled water can be back to normal. After the verdict, both Beijing and Manila have expressed their willingness to resolve their territorial disputes peacefully. Experts say the ruling of the arbitration is largely controversial, but it may have also opened a door to negotiations.

 

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Chinese Premier calls on Japan to stop interfering in the South China Sea issue Premier Li Keqiang has called on Japan to stop hyping up and interfering in the South China Sea issue. Li made the remarks in a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting. He also urged both sides to step up exchanges on the East China Sea issue through a dialogue based on the four-point principled agreement in 2014.

 

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China has ample evidence to reject "ruling" on South China Sea dispute: Tung Chee-hwa HONG KONG, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Tung Chee-hwa, Vice Chairman of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said here on Friday that there is ample evidence for China to reject the "award" rendered on 12 July in the South China Sea arbitration established at the unilateral request of the Philippine government. HONG KONG, July 15, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Tung Chee-hwa, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People HONG KONG, July 15, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Tung Chee-hwa, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, delivers a keynote speech at the Public International Law Colloquium on Maritime Disputes Settlement in south China's Hong Kong, July 15, 2016. Tung said here on Friday that there is ample evidence for China to reject the "award" rendered on 12 July in the South China Sea arbitration established at the unilateral request of the Philippine government. (Xinhua/Wang Shen) Delivering a keynote speech at the Public International Law Colloquium on Maritime Disputes Settlement, Tung said China has indeed adhered to international legal norms in the South China Sea dispute. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has provided its signatories with an option to make an exception in cases concerning maritime boundary delimitation, with more than 30 countries have taken the option including UN Security Council permanent members Britain, France and Russia, Tung said. On this basis, Tung said, China ratified the Convention in 1996, when it made a declaration reaffirming its sovereignty over all its archipelagos and islands, including those in the South China Sea. In 2006, China made another declaration, under Article 298 of the Convention, that any maritime boundary delimitation issues are excluded from the jurisdiction of any dispute resolution mechanism under the Convention. Another reason for China declined to attend the arbitration proceedings is that, in 2002, a Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea was agreed, promoting bilateral negotiation among the disputing nations over sovereignty issues, and calling for the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea for all nations of the world in accordance to UNCLOS. "To have attended the arbitration proceedings at the Hague would undermine a process that has long been in place to resolve the dispute in a bilateral and peaceful manner," Tung said. Furthermore, UNCLOS rules clearly provide that, until the bilateral discussions have been exhausted, a country should not approach the Permanent Court of Arbitration to adjudicate border disputes, Tung added. Tung also talked about the historical evidence to support China's sovereignty over the South China Sea, saying the Chinese discovered Nansha Islands with the earliest archaeological evidence of their use dating back hundreds and sometimes thousands of years. In more recent history towards the end of the World War II, there emerges ample, clear and convincing evidence that China has sovereignty over the Nansha Islands. This evidence has been recognized by the international community, including the United States. These can be found in very important international treaties and declarations including the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Declaration, he said. "Whilst a strategic intend is to pursue peace above all, China will firmly and steadfastly pursue the protection of her territorial integrity," Tung said, emphasizing peace is precious and stands above all and China would like to resolve territorial disputes peacefully. Tung also criticized the U.S. for frequently carrying out military exercises in the South China Sea, sometimes in conjunction with the military of another claimant to the disputed region, which helps to consolidate suspicions of many Chinese people that the U.S. pivot to Asia is to contain China. He said the best way to demonstrate this is for the U.S. to persuade the Philippine government to positively engage with the Chinese government on resolving the territorial dispute. "It is well recognized that the China-U.S. relationship today is the most important bilateral relationship in the world. Economically, the relationship is becoming more and more interdependent in terms of trade and investment," he said. The two-day meeting is jointly organized by the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center and the Chinese Society of International Law.

 

[JohnTan]

Here are some facts:

1. Chinkland refused to participate in the arbitration. So you can't blame the tribunal for being "one-sided" if you refuse to participate and show your claims

2. Chinkland is upset that the judges are not from countries that have been bribed by China such as Cambodia or some shitty African country.

3. Chinkland refuses to negotiate with the affected countries directly anyway, despite chinkland claiming that they want to. Chinkland insists that the seas belong to them, leaving no room for negotiation.

4. Chinkland says that seas off 100 km from Pinoy mainland and over 1000 km away from Hainan is China's seas, claiming "historic" rights. The reality is that several chink emperors have passed edicts banning all maritime contact, and the first countries to formally colonise Taiwan were the spanish and the dutch, not the chinky Mings. So much for historic rights.

Chinkland could retain some shred of credibility if they at least said they were using brute force to take the seas and that might makes right. Chinkland's idea of diplomacy is as sophisticated as the typical ranting chink who screams and bawls and roll on the floor when he doesn't get his way.

 

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News Analysis: Shunji Yanai, manipulator behind illegal South China Sea arbitration TOKYO, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Of the illegal five-member arbitral tribunal on the South China Sea case, except for one designated by the Philippines, four were appointed by Shunji Yanai, former president of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS). Rightist, hawkish, close to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, pro-American, unfriendly to China ... these are the tags that people often associate with Yanai. Observers said it was no strange that The Hague-based tribunal handling the South China Sea arbitration case unilaterally initiated by the former Philippine government issued an ill-founded award on Tuesday and denied China's long-standing historic rights in the South China Sea. A DIPLOMAT STEPPING DOWN AMID SCANDAL Yanai came from a diplomatic family in Japan. His father, a graduate from Tokyo University, had worked for the Japanese Foreign Ministry and had been Japan's ambassador to Colombia for a while until he was deported at the start of WWII. He quit the Foreign Ministry and practiced law after the war. Thanks to his family background, Shunji Yanai went to elementary and middle schools also attended by the Japanese royal family, and was later admitted to Tokyo University to study law. He entered the Japanese Foreign Ministry after graduation, following his father's steps. The younger Yanai became Japanese ambassador to the United States in 1999. "As a senior official in the Japanese government Mr. Shunji Yanai is a rare breed. He is ... bold and sometimes controversial, and somehow gets away with things that would most likely cost someone else his career," said Fumiko Halloran in his review of Yanai's book titled "Rapid Changes in Diplomacy." Yanai had to leave the Foreign Ministry along with three other officials amid a series of embezzlement scandals within the ministry. After the end of his diplomatic career, Yanai became a professor of law at Chuo University in Tokyo. A MASTERMIND BEHIND WIDELY OPPOSED SECURITY LAWS A law graduate from Tokyo University, Yanai was considered by some observers as an expert on bypassing constraints of and warping Japan's postwar pacifist Constitution. According to Japanese newspaper Nikkei, when Yanai was director general of the Treaties Bureau of the Foreign Ministry during the 1990 Gulf War, he helped push through parliament an act that allowed Japan to send Self-Defense Forces abroad to assist in UN peacekeeping operations. In 1992, the Japanese government dispatched some 600 soldiers and 75 police officers to Cambodia for peacekeeping operations. In 2007, during Abe's first term as Japanese prime minister, Yanai served as chairman of a panel set up to advise Abe on his plan to revise the country's Constitution to allow military actions overseas. After Abe took office again in 2012, he relaunched his political agenda of revising the Constitution. It was also Yanai who in 2014 presented a report to Abe advocating lifting the ban on Japan sending its military overseas. In 2015, Japan abandoned its 70-year pacifism by enacting controversial security laws that allow Japan to dispatch troops overseas to engage in armed conflicts for the first time in seven decades, despite outcries and protests from the public and neighboring countries victimized by Japan's military invasion during World War II. THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR ORGANIZING BIASED ARBITRAL TRIBUNAL Yanai became the first Japanese to be president of ITLOS on October 1, 2011. His new role raised concerns of countries who had maritime territorial disputes with Japan, including the Republic of Korea. After the Philippines unilaterally initiated the arbitration case against China in 2013, a five-member arbitral tribunal was created by Yanai. Due to the maritime conflicts and historical issues between China and Japan, as well as Yanai's political leanings, it is not surprising that Yanai generally chose arbitrators that were biased against China. In August 2013, when he was still choosing arbitrators, Yanai reportedly stressed on an NHK TV program that Japan's islands are "under threat" and that Japan has "enemies" and needs to improve its military strength for safeguarding security. "From the result of the arbitration, people can see that it was conducted by a bunch of people who knew very little about the South China Sea issues," said Motofumi Asai, a former official of the Japanese Foreign Ministry in charge of China affairs and a former colleague of Yanai. Asai also pointed out that Yanai had close ties with Abe, and had served as chairman of an expert panel advising the prime minister on security laws. "The arbitration was obviously conducted in accordance with the wills of the Abe administration," he said. For Japanese political analyst Jiro Honzawa, the arbitration is not about truth but about politics. "The Philippines was abetted by the U.S. and Japan to apply for arbitration, because the latter two want to contain China." He also criticized NHK and some other Japanese media for reporting untruthfully to "cover up for the right-wing administration." "The arbitration was a trap set up by Japan and the U.S.," he wrote on his blog. http://english.cctv.com/2016/07/17/ARTIZC4hLP6vvlScmsi97w8H160717.shtml