In recent years the issue of South China Sea has become an international hot spot. On October 29, 2015, an arbitration tribunal established at the unilateral request by the Government of the Philippines made a preliminary ruling on the jurisdiction and admissibility of the South China Sea Case in accordance with Appendix IIV of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. On October 30, 2015, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement claiming that the ruling has no legal effect and is not binding on China. The South China Sea Arbitration Case and the preliminary ruling on the case have generated heated discussions in Chinese international law circle. Recently, Chinese Review of International Law, a bimonthly journal sponsored by CASS, launched a special column entitled “Expert Comments on the South China Sea Arbitration Case”, to publish the analyses by and opinions of international law scholars and experts on the South China Sea Arbitration Case. In the latest issue of the Journal, which came out on March 15, 2016, the column contains the following three articles:

Jurisdictional Objection to the Philippines’s Submissions regarding Ninedash Line：Exclusion of the Dispute concerning Sources of Maritime Entitlements under UNCLOS Article 2981（a）（i）(by Zhang Xinjun);

The Formulation and Essence of Dispute：Critical Reviews on the First Claim in the South China Sea Arbitration and the Award on Jurisdiction (by Chen Xifeng);

and

Commentary on Award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility of the Philippinesinstituted Arbitration under Annex VII to the UNCLOS：Factfinding and Evidence (by He Tiantian)