The South China Sea Arbitration (The Philippines v. China): Potential Jurisdictional Obstacles or Objections

This article first highlights in Part I the procedural posture of the South China Sea Arbitration (the Philippines v. China) case and the affirmative duty of the Arbitral Tribunal under Article 9 of Annex VII to the UNCLOS, faced with the absence of China, to investigate conscientiously its own jurisdiction by taking notice of all available information and materials whether or not they are submitted to the Tribunal. Part II summarizes the Philippines' claims and highlights their nature as well as the delimitation geographical framework and the delimitation situation in this matter. The Philippines "skillfully" fragments a big dispute with China into various free-standing-appearing entitlement claims and activities claims in order to conceal the sovereignty-delimitation nature of the dispute or claims. Part III discusses the jurisdictional obstacles or objections ratione temporis and ratione materiae. The dispute is outside the jurisdiction of Section 2 courts and tribunals, because it predated the entry into force of the UNCLOS with respect to China. Furthermore, the Philippines' claims are essentially land territorial sovereignty matters, not concerning the interpretation or application of the UNCLOS, or are dependent on the resolution of land territorial sovereignty claims. Part IV discusses the jurisdictional obstacles or objections based on Article 298 of the UNCLOS and China's 2006 optional exceptions declaration as well as the Philippines' related Understanding. When