Manila vs Beijing ruling to affect nations with similar claims over islets: Analyst

[unhappycamper]

http://atimes.com/2016/03/manila-vs-beijing-ruling-to-affect-nations-with-similar-claims-over-islets-analyst/



Paul Reichler, the Philippines’s lead counsel for its case against China over maritime claims in the South China Sea, speaks before the international tribunal in the Hague in this file photo

Manila vs Beijing ruling to affect nations with similar claims over islets: Analyst
By AT Editor on March 25, 2016
(From The Philippine Star)

Other nations with expansive maritime claims over remote islets may have to reconsider their position if the international tribunal established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) rules in favor of Manila in its case against Beijing, an analyst said.

The Philippines in 2013 filed an arbitration case against China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands, to challenge the latter’s claims over the South China Sea. The ruling is expected to be out in May this year.

Academia Sinica research fellow Yann-Huei Song said that the expected favorable ruling for the Philippines may set a precedent that will affect the claims of several nations calling on China to abide by decision.

For instance, Australia, Brazil, France, Japan, and the United States all make expansive maritime claims from remote islets that are not dissimilar in size or habitability to some of the Spratly Islands that the Philippines insists are legally rocks, not islands,” Song said in an article published in the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.