Monthly Archives: May 2013

Brilliant strategy

SUPREME COURT Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has been in the news lately because of his commencement address at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) Graduate School of Law a couple of weeks ago. Rightly so. His discussion of the issues involved in our West Philippine Sea (WPS) dispute with China (actually, both Chinas […]

South China Sea tension mounts near Filipino shipwreck

(Reuters) – A wrecked navy transport ship perched on a remote coral reef could be the next flashpoint in the South China Sea, where China and five other claimants bitterly dispute territory. The Philippines is accusing China of encroachment after three Chinese ships, including a naval frigate, converged just 5 nautical miles from an old […]

Cohen Calls for Arbitration of South China Sea Dispute

In a speech in Hong Kong last Thursday, pioneering China legal scholar Jerome Cohen said China was looking like a “bully” for rejecting international arbitration of its territorial dispute with the Philippines, according to a South China Morning Post report. The two countries both claim the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, which are believed […]

Beijing rejects arbitration over Philippines territorial spat

China should be careful how it looks to the international community, according to Professor Jerome Cohen of New York University. The drama about the disputed Scarborough Shoal or Huangyan Islands had the Philippines seeking international arbitration from the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS. The Philippines have said they acknowledge […]

Beijing rejects arbitration over Philippines territorial spat

China should be careful how it looks to the international community, according to Professor Jerome Cohen of New York University. The drama about the disputed Scarborough Shoal or Huangyan Islands had the Philippines seeking international arbitration from the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS. The Philippines have said they acknowledge […]

Carpio: PHL should appeal China’s 9-dash Rule to ‘world opinion’

Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has said that even if the Philippines wins in the arbitral dispute it has lodged against China on the West Philippine Sea, the decision would most likely go unenforced. In a speech he delivered before graduating law students of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Carpio noted that […]

The lake of dangerous disputes

BY MARITES DAÑGUILAN VITUG The good news is: tension between Taipei and Manila is de-escalating. The bad news is: there will be more of these disputes, in different variations and intensities. “This will happen again,” Chito Sto. Romana, a China scholar, warns. “We share maritime space.” Taiwan, while a renegade province, takes the same position […]

Carpio: China claim illegal under UNCLOS

MANILA, Philippines – China’s  9-dashed line claim to almost the entire West Philippine Sea violates the the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), according to Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio. Carpio, in a speech before graduates of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila on May 18, said Beijing’s claim takes away […]

Justice Carpio pessimistic on PH case vs China but…

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines’ only recourse in the territorial dispute with China is to appeal to world opinion even if the country has already taken the issue to an arbitral tribunal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), a senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court said. Senior Associate Justice Antonio […]

Beckman, The Philippines v. China Case and the South China Sea Disputes

On 22 January 2013, the Philippines officially notified China that it had instituted arbitral proceedings against China under Annex VII of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This paper will examine the role of UNCLOS and international law in the South China Sea disputes and will focus in particular […]