A Chinese Perspective of Treaty Interpretation on the Status of Maritime Features: In Response to the South China Sea Arbitration Award

• Author: Jinxing Ma
• Pages: 99-100

Maritime Features in SCS Arbitration 99

XI JEAIL 1 (2018)

Jinxing Ma

∗

The status of maritime features is one of the core issues in the South China Sea

Arbitration. The essence of this issue is territorial sovereignty and maritime

delimitation disputes between China and the Philippines. Based on the interception

of certain facts and evidence, the Tribunal did not interpret the China

’

s diplomatic

position as it wanted, and it had an intensely subjective interpretation of Article

121(3) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982. Combined

with the Chinese government

’

s positions before and after the publicity surrounding

the Award, this paper, which takes the logical approaches of the Award as the main

line, focuses on chapter 6 of the Award, raising questions about disputes on the

status of maritime features, analyzing the treaty interpretations related to the status

of maritime features, and clarifying the defections.

Keywords

Arbitral Tribunal, South China Sea, Statue, Maritime Features, Treaty

Interpretation, In Dubio Mitius

A Chinese Perspective of

Treaty Interpretation on the

Status of Maritime Features:

In Response to the South

China Sea Arbitration Award

∗ Assistant Researcher and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of International Law, Chinese Academy of Social

Sciences (CASS). LL.M. (Saarland), LL.B./Ph.D. (Dalian Maritime Univ.). The views expressed in this paper are those

of the author’s and do not represent the official position of any government agencies or other people. The author may be

contacted: majinxing@cass.org.cn /Address: No.15, Sha Tan Bei Jie, Dongcheng District, Beijing, 100720, P.R. China.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14330/jeail.2018.11.1.05

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