Abstract
In a move that has drawn considerable interest in the region, the Philippines initiated an arbitral proceeding under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (LOSC) on 22 January 2013 challenging the validity of China’s claims in the South China Sea, in particular the status of the nine-dash line map encapsulating China’s historic, sovereignty and sovereign rights claims. The map was attached to China’s note verbale of 7 May 2009 on the Malaysia-Vietnam Joint Submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf and showed an area encompassing almost all of the South China Sea that overlapped with the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf claims of other littoral states. Various administrative, legislative and military actions were taken by China aimed at asserting her claims prior to and after the publication of the map.
The Notification and Statement of Claim (Notification) by the Philippines challenges the nine-dash line claim, China’s occupation of submerged features and low-tide elevations and interference with the lawful exercises of the Philippines’ rights in their maritime zones. It sought an award declaring that the line is contrary to LOSC and therefore invalid; that China’s rights in regard to maritime areas in the South China Sea are established by LOSC; requiring China to bring its domestic legislation into conformity with its obligations under LOSC; to determine the status and entitlement of certain maritime features claimed by both states pursuant to LOSC Article 121; and that the Philippines is entitled to maritime zones established under LOSC and measured from its archipelagic baselines.
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