The South China Sea Arbitration

A Legal Critique of the Award of the Arbitral Tribunal in the Matter of the South China Sea Arbitration

This critique assesses each of the dispositive findings on jurisdiction and merits in the Award of South China Sea Arbitration, from the perspective of the applicable substantive and procedural rules of public international law. This critique does not address in detail the Arbitral Tribunal’s Award on Jurisdiction and admissibility, dated 29 October 2015. However, it refers to the Award on Jurisdiction where relevant for the purposes of our legal critique of the Award. The core conclusions in respect of the Award are summarised below. In short, our analysis indicates that there are substantial grounds to question the validity of most of the Tribunal’s central findings of jurisdiction and merits in the Award.