The arbitration over the South China Sea dispute unilaterally initiated by the former Philippine government is in fact a celebration among rogue arbitrators, who have hidden their selfish motives under the guise of the rule of law.
In 2013, the Aquino III administration brought an arbitration case over its South China Sea dispute with China, prompting a five-member ad hoc arbitral tribunal.
By doing so, the Philippines violated its standing agreement with China to settle the their disputes through bilateral negotiation. The country also violated China's right to decide its own means of settling a dispute as a State Party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Last Tuesday, the tribunal issued a so-called final award, denying China's long-standing historic rights in the South China Sea.
The Chinese government said in a white paper that as the arbitration had no jurisdiction over this particular case, awards rendered by it are null and void and have no binding force.
"China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea shall under no circumstances be affected by those awards. China does not accept or recognize those awards. China opposes and will never accept any claim or action based on those awards," it said.
BIASED TRIBUNAL
Most of the members of the ad hoc tribunal were picked by Shunji Yanai, then president of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and former Japanese ambassador to the United States.
Yanai presented a report to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that called for the lifting of a ban on Japan's ability to send its military abroad in a combat role, something that would run counter to its constitution.
Yanai's creation of the arbitral tribunal is believed to be biased as he initially picked Judge Chris Pinto of Sri Lanka -- whose wife is a Filipino -- as one of the tribunal's members.
Pinto was later replaced by Judge Thomas A. Mensah of Ghana, who pursued long-term studies in Britain and the United States.
The other four members are Judge Jean-Pierre Cot of France, Judge Stanislaw Pawlak of Poland, Professor Alfred Soons of the Netherlands and Judge Rudiger Wolfrum of Germany.
Four members have extensive experience in arbitration, among whom Mensah participated in five arbitration cases over maritime disputes and Wolfrum, three.
