China has violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) when it snubbed the Philippine arbitral claim on the West Philippine Sea and when it built structures on disputed reefs in the area.
This was the pronouncement made by international law expert and University of the Philippines professor Harry Roque Jr. in his speech at the 5th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of International Law at the Chuo University Law School in Tokyo last Sunday.
Roque said China’s refusal to participate in the arbitration and its unilateral acts in building artificial islands in the disputed maritime area of the Spratly’s constitute a “serious and belligerent violation… [and] breach of the UNCLOS since as a party to the Convention, China agreed to refer all matters involving interpretation and application of the UNCLOS to the compulsory and binding dispute settlement procedure of the Convention.”