ABSTRACT
In terms of China's law enforcement at Scarborough Shoal and the Second Thomas Shoal, both China and the Philippines claim sovereignty over these two features. The Philippines argues that its claims do not involve sovereignty and maritime delimitation, thus the 2006 Declaration made by China based on Article 298 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to exclude certain disputes from a third party compulsory settlement mechanism does not apply in this case. The author would argue that an observation of the history of the bilateral disputes gives the reader a deeper understanding of the legal merit of the claim and the political implications arising from it. One of the core issues concerning the claims is actually law enforcement in the disputed maritime area. Law enforcement co-operation on fishery resources management might be a starting point for solving the disputes, rather than a sudden jump to a third party dispute settlement procedure.
