U.S. International Oceans Law and Policy Interests in the South China Sea Arbitration: Implications for the U.S. Administration in the South China Sea and Elsewhere

Even though the United States has not ratified UNCLOS, U.S. oceans policies and practices are inextricably linked to UNCLOS. For this reason, the United States needs to approach its future relations with China through the lens of UNCLOS and the recent Arbitration decision involving its claims in the South China Sea. The decision cannot be dismissed as something which is an insignificant technical legal disagreement. The Arbitration concretely addresses core resource, environmental and the entitlements to oceans territory in the South China Sea and the precedent impacts other disputes that could, if not resolved, become security flashpoints which will impact U.S. economic or military interests. The decision also confronts recent legal revisionism by China; a party to UNCLOS since 1996. China’s continuing rejection of the decision will, in the long run, cause the decline of international law and cast doubt on whether the U.S., and other developed countries, can expect to have a rules- based order to govern their security and economic affairs if the decision is not respected by world’s second most powerful country. For this reason, it is in the United States interest to make China’s compliance with the Arbitration decision a central tenant of U.S. China Policy and, in doing so, persuade China that it has much to gain from a rules-based order at sea.