The Hague theatrical Judgment on the South China Sea

From the onset, the conclusion of this international farce was already a given. Professor Tommy Koh, Singapore’s Ambassador at Large and a Law professor, had written that the UNCLOS has no jurisdiction over territorial disputes in his article Peace At Sea in the ST on 3 Jun. And I quote,

‘The convention has one other unique feature. Under Unclos, dispute settlement is compulsory and not optional and it is an integral part of the convention….

Under Article 298 of the convention, disputes over sea boundaries and military activities are exempted from compulsory dispute settlement. Apart from these two exceptions, all other disputes concerning the interpretation and application of the convention are subject to compulsory dispute settlement.’

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in Hague thus has no right and reason to hear the dispute over the South China Sea islands put up by the Philippines. The Hague’s stubborn insistence to hear this case is enough to tell what is it’s motive and agenda.

An international court of jurisdiction is expected to be impartial, to uphold the law under its constitution if it wants to be respectable and seen as respectable as an international court of justice. The moment it decided to hear a case not within its jurisdiction is the moment it is failing as an international court and loses its credibility to the nations of the world. The judicial committee has done wrong to the reputation and credibility of this Court. It undermines the reason for its existence when it crumbled to political pressure to hear a case it was not supposed to hear.

The Permanent Court went ahead despite objections by China and with China stating clearly that it would not respect its arbitration and decision. Why would this Court continue with the farce knowing that China did not give its consent to hear the case? It is political. Yes, the Court is making a political statement, not a decision based on law which it has no jurisdiction. It ignores the main party of the dispute’s objection and compromises its own credibility and the integrity of the judges.

Now the Court is expected to deliver its ‘judgment’, or political opinion in this case, and the Americans and its allies are waiting eagerly to use it to demand that China respects this political opinion that has no legal authority and not legally binding under any courts of law. And the irony, the Americans are not even a signatory of UNCLOS, in other words saying that they don’t respect the rules and regulations of UNCLOS, but demanding China to accept an illegal political opinion from the ICJ?

Without the consent of China, a party to a territorial dispute, the decision of the Court is meaningless, illegal and irrelevant. It has no authority, no legal status and it is not binding. It is only right for China to ignore it as another political statement or even tear it to pieces like what the American did in the past to tell the Court that it had no jurisdiction over them. To China and the world, the whole drama is as good as a hoax, a theatre engineered and promoted by its perpetrators.

Nonetheless, the Americans, the Philippines and their allies will want to use the Hague as a political statement to put political pressure on China as if China is violating the judgment of an international court when it was not so. China is legally entitled to ignore the Hague decision as it has not given its consent to the arbitration.

The pro western media would have a field day trying take down China as a rogue and recalcitrant nation, not playing by the rule of law. The western leaders are expected to make their political speeches to compel China to accept a farcical judgment that they too did not believe is legal. Some Asean states may want to believe that the Philippines had won a legal battle in the international court when it has not.

There will be a lot of outcry by the Americans and its allies to discredit China by this Hague Conspiracy. It is a sham! It is so shameful for an international court of jurisdiction to compromise is neutrality, integrity and legality to be part of the American and Filipino conspiracy. The bottom line, the Permanent Court of Arbitration has lost all credibility as a neutral and respectable international court to hear disputes between countries. And the American camp can beat the war drum but nothing will change the status of the islands in the South China Sea.

The theatre has come to an end, with an applause and encore from the conspirators but nothing more. It is rubbish, not binding and an act of desperation to make something illegal to be legal.

Independent countries of the international community must stand up to this farce. They must stop it from becoming a precedent to decide the fate of their future that may be imposed on them by the abuse of power and trust of the international court beyond its jurisdiction.