臺灣應如何看待「南海仲裁案」之裁決結果？

How Should Taiwan Treat the Award Made by the Aribitral Tribunal in the South China Sea Arbitration Case?

二○一六年七月十二日，審理「南海仲裁案」之法庭發布裁決書，其中判斷中國大陸所主張之「九段線」與線內歷史性權力沒有法律依據，並作出南沙群島最大的島嶼－－太平島－－係《聯合國海洋法公約》第一二一條第三項所指之「岩塊」，因此不能主張專屬經濟海域或大陸礁層的見解。此觸發台灣政府與全國民眾對此仲裁案之高度關切，並紛紛提出未來如何捍衛、經營太平島的倡議。本文說明仲裁過程與裁決內榮，並探討台灣應如何看待或因應仲裁之裁決結果。

The Arbitral Tribunal constituted under Annex VII of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (“UNCLOS”) issued its award in the arbitration case concerning the South China Sea disputes between the Republic of the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China on July 12, 2016, which concluded, inter alia, that there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources, in excess of the rights provided for by the UNCLOS, within the sea areas falling within the “nine-dash line”, and that Taiping Island (Itu Aba), the largest naturally formed feature in the Spratly Islands, is a “rock” in accordance with Article 121(3) of the Convention. The Tribunal’s ruling attracted high attention from Taiwan’s government and people to the case. In response, a number of policy suggestions, aiming at safeguarding the country’s sovereignty, sovereign right, and jurisdiction in the South China Sea and managing Taiping Island in the future, have been proposed. The purposes of this article are twofold: first, it examines the development in the arbitral proceedings and the content of the award; second, it discusses how Taiwan should treat the outcome of the case.