The Court has given a decisive ruling in favour of The Philippines by upholding all the latter’s contentions, though there is no mechanism to enforce the judgment.
On the question of China’s historic rights in the sea and validity of its ‘nine-dash line’, the Court has unequivocally maintained that “as between the Philippines and China, there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources, in excess of the rights provided for by the Convention [UNCLOS], within the sea areas falling within the ‘nine-dash line’.”
Thus, the Court has investigated and rejected the historical and legal validity of the ....
