South China Sea ruling "biased and legally flawed": Sudan experts

Sudanese legal experts on Tuesday described the ruling by an arbitral tribunal in The Hague on the South China Sea dispute as "biased and legally flawed" with many faults.

A number of Sudanese experts on international law, interviewed by Xinhua Tuesday, said the award is not abiding to China and would not change the historical facts about the Chinese sovereignty over the South China Sea.

They stressed that in the case of the dispute over the South China Sea, the the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) cannot legally be applied.

"The dispute over sovereignty between two countries is not referred to arbitration except by the agreement of the two parties," Dr. Bukhari Al-Ja'li, a professor of international law at a Sudanese university, told Xinhua Tuesday.

"There is nothing binding to China, including appearance before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, therefore, it is natural for China not to be bound by what the court issues," he noted.

Dr. Farouq Mohamed Adam, a Sudanese professor of international law, said the award of the arbitral tribunal would only further complicate the situation at the South China Sea.

The arbitral tribunal in The Hague has become a trouble maker which creates chaos instead of seeking to resolve disputes. It is apparent that the decision of the court, issued Tuesday, came as a result of U.S. political pressures," Adam told Xinhua.

"The proceedings of the arbitral tribunal on the dispute over the South China Sea is legally flawed, if China has not agreed on referring the file to the court," he added.

He went on saying "it is clear that the Philippines is moving by a U.S pushing force and it is also clear the U.S. is tending to instigate some issues in the Far East through exploiting issues such as the South China Sea dispute."

Adam regarded the award of the arbitral tribunal as "a serious precedent" that harms the international law and undermines all international norms which have been built on basis of solution for all disputes over sovereignty, pointing out that arbitration is not resort to unless with the consent of the two parties.

He agreed with China's stance that it neither accepts nor recognizes the award of the arbitral tribunal in the South China Sea arbitration established at the request of the Philippines.

"The award is null and void and has no binding force," he appreciated the statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Tuesday. Endit