Throwback: Remarks made at a University of Malaya forum on the Lahad Datu, Sabah incident (2013)

A backgrounder to the current Philippines-Malaysia exchange of diplomatic notes on the Sabah question, from remarks delivered at a University of Malaya forum in 2013.

Interlacements

On March 22, 2013, the University of Malaya hosted a forum on the Sabah question in the wake of the Lahad Datu incident, in which around 200 followers of the Sultan of Sulu launched an attack, purportedly to enforce the old Sultanate’s ownership of portions of what used to be called North Borneo.

I, and Prof. Julkipli M. Wadi of the Islamic Studies program of the University of the Philippines Asian Center, were the Philippine representatives in the conference, in which senior Malaysian scholars who prepared the historical case for Malaysia’s successful prosecution of the 2002 Sovereignty over Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan (Indonesia/Malaysia) before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) were our main interlocutors.

The Philippines intervened in that case, seeing how its outcome may affect its own claim over Sabah, an oil-rich region that, with Sarawak, make up for 60 percent of Malaysia’s petroleum production. While the…

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Is Vietnam now ready to do “a Philippines” against China?

Interlacements

By Romel Regalado Bagares*

There are unmistakable signs that Vietnam may have already reached the point of no return in its maritime dispute with China.  

One such sign is Vietnam’s recent nomination of four arbitrators – including that of Professor Robert C. Beckman, a noted Law of the Sea expert based at the National University of Singapore, under Annex VII of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

That section of the multi-party treaty outlines the defaultcompulsory mode for arbitrating questions of interpretation and application of the UNCLOS or relevant treaties where the parties have not agreed beforehand on any mechanism to resolve such disputes.

Last month, on July 27, aVietnamese news outletreported the names of three other nominees, all VietnameseUNCLOS experts:Professor Nguyen Hong Thao of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam and amember of United Nations International Law Commission, Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan Anh,former Vice Chair ofthe Vietnamese…

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Getting a 5.0 in a class on public international law back in the day

Interlacements

I recently made a backup copy of a recording I made two years ago of a brief conversation with Dean Merlin M. Magallona on how he developed his approach to teaching the Philippine practice of international law.

He says in 1995, he first realized something was wrong with how international law is taught in the Philippines when he was gathering materials for his first book dedicated solely to teaching international law.
He said international law as practiced in the Philippines is not international law in the objective international plane (vague echoes of Kelsenian language there, although his method is hardly one!).

Then he recalled being a student in the public international law class taught by Dean Vicente G. Sinco, back in the early 50s.

Back then, Dean Magallona said, students went to class in elaborate Barong Tagalog or a suit, and woe to you if you dressed less than what…

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