Young scholars counter court action

Overseas scholars of international law present posters in front of the Peace Palace in Hague, Netherlands on July 8, 2016. They try to seek justice of international law by publicizing an open letter about scholars' professional stance on the South China Sea case. [Photo by Fu Jing/China Daily]

But the PCA went ahead and formed a tribunal, and accepted the case, which, Peng says, is not in the basic spirit of rule of international law. "It is obvious that the PCA and tribunal have acted beyond their competence, though they know the law perfectly well." Despite that, the West has been encouraging a biased understanding of the case, with the Western media playing an unfair role, concluding that "China is threatening" without having a careful look at the whole picture.

"This is dangerous and we need to change, and we also need to help the public in the world know the nature of international law," says Peng, chairwoman of the Chinese Students Union in the Netherlands.

"A scholar of international law should shoulder responsibility to let the public know the true story."

Since the tribunal started work several years ago, Peng has organized two panel discussions at her university to discuss the true nature of the case. And she is busy talking on various occasions. Since April, she has mobilized up to 30 young Chinese scholars and students of law and lawyers in the Netherlands, who had intensively studied this case to draft a joint statement on their professional stances on the South China Sea case. Since then, they worked day and night on the text of the open letter, which is 12 pages and 2,500 words in length.

"We are courageous in challenging the doings of the tribunal and the Philippines in a professional fashion," says Peng.

The letter also stated in detail that state consent is the basis of the compulsory arbitration, while the dispute between China and the Philippines is on territorial and maritime delimitation. The scholars say in the letter that much evidence has shown that the tribunal has abused the legal process and taken wrong actions.

The letter, seen by China Daily, concludes that the award of the tribunal has no binding force as it has no jurisdiction over the dispute.