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June 9, 2015

Justice Antonio Carpio delivers public lecture on South China Sea

The South China Sea is rich in mineral resources, traversed by global shipping lines and home to fishing grounds that supply the livelihoods of people across the region.

But territorial disputes over sovereignty threaten to escalate tensions in the region according to Justice Antonio Carpio, a Senior Associate Justice at the Supreme Court of the Philippines who delivered a public lecture at UOW on 4 June.

Justice Antonio Carpio tackled issues relating to the South China Sea dispute including a case where both the Philippines and China lay claim to the Scarborough Shoal (known as Huangyan Island in China) - a little more than 160km from the Philippines and over 800kms from China.

China is claiming almost 90 per cent of the South China Sea under its so-called nine-dashed line map, which stretches hundreds of kilometres south and east from its most southerly province of Hainan.

The Philippines Government has filed a case against China with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) over the territorial dispute. UNCLOS, comprises 85 per cent of the entire membership of the United Nations, and is the primary international law governing the use of the oceans and seas of our planet.

“These developments have an adverse impact on the environment, and they are all taking place almost under the radar of UNCLOS.”

Using official government documents and academic studies, including historical records and maps, Mr Carpio based his statements on the international law of the sea. However, China insists that the historical view of the area is also important to consider.

“Beijing says its right to the area goes back centuries to when the Paracel and Spratly island chains and the Scarborough Shoal were regarded as integral parts of the Chinese nation. In 1947 it issued a map detailing its claims, showing the island groups falling entirely within its territory. China’s claim to a “historical right” to the waters enclosed within the nine-dashed lines in the South China Sea is utterly without basis under international law,” Mr Carpio said.