The following are articles I've written in the past regarding our territorial dispute with China and possible dispute settlement alternatives:
> China anger management and the UN General Assembly
> ITLOS'ing China
> ITLOS
> Scarborough, China, and ITLOS
> Spratly
> Defending Scarborough fair
My most recent article on the matter is here. Some interesting interesting reactions from international law commentators can be found here, here, and here. A good overall initial analysis from the Wall Street Journal can be found here.
In any event, it will take some time and (hopefully) more information from the DFA on the legal basis and nature of our claim. For the moment, here were my comments in Facebook: "huge decisive [albeit quite dramatic] step by the Philippines. There
is a significant jurisdictional problem, particularly Article 298 of UNCLOS, yes, but it's only a problem if China decides to hide behind
technicalities.
Nevertheless, I am in full agreement with the DFA's statement: "We are all for improving our economic
relations with China but it should not be at the expense of surrendering
our national sovereignty."
