THE HAGUE, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The United States should urge the Philippines to return to negotiation with China to settle the maritime territorial disputes in the South China Sea, said Abraham Sofaer, former legal adviser to the U.S. State Department.
Speaking at a seminar in The Hague on Sunday, Sofaer said supporters of the Philippines' arbitration case, including the United States, believed that the action against China was justified by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and would advance the influence and effectiveness of international law, but to the contrary, the litigation has caused far more harm than good.
The Philippines has unilaterally filed an arbitration case against China over South China Sea disputes. China maintains that the tribunal has no jurisdiction over the case, which is in essence about territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation.
Sofaer, the 78-year old former federal judge and expert on international law, pointed out that one of major problems with the case is jurisdiction.
According to UNCLOS, an arbitral tribunal cannot rule on sovereignty disputes, and China has excluded such disputes from mandatory arbitration.
Therefore, it is simplistic and wrong to assume that China would agree to submit to the arbitration on the Philippines' claims, Sofaer said.
Sofaer was a professor at Colombia University Law School before undertaking the position as a legal adviser to the U.S. State Department from 1985 to 1990. He currently serves as a senior fellow in Foreign Policy and National Security Affairs at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
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