"I wish to draw particular attention to the detrimental impact caused by the SCS arbitration to the inherent balance of the compulsory settlement procedures under the UNCLOS. The tribunal should have been more cautious when ruling on jurisdiction," Xu said.
"When doing research for this open letter, we noticed that a growing number of non-Chinese experts and scholars expressed their concerns over the tribunal's jurisdiction ruling, especially in relation to the real issue of the Philippines' claims. This is both inspiring and encouraging," he said.
"In the open letter we make it clear that China has a correct understanding of the UNCLOS compulsory procedures. China does not accept these procedures being abused for political purposes. By upholding state consent as the basis of compulsory arbitration, China made a right move to defend this fundamental principle of international rule of law. In the long run, more States will see the value of these efforts," added Xu.
Zhang Tong, 24, the youngest of the team, told Xinhua that the faith in the international law led her to join the open letter.
"Compared to the richly experienced arbitrators of the tribunal, I am only a beginner. But I have to say that the jurisdiction ruling is not convincing enough for me. I was particularly surprised by the circular arguments they exercised to substantively exclude the application of China's declaration about the compulsory jurisdiction under article 298," said Zhang.
The Leiden master student on international law believed that in the positivist tradition, compulsory arbitration and other compulsory procedures under the Convention, as agreed upon by more than 160 countries through nine-years' negotiation, are strictly consent-based in substance.
"Within the scope of such consents, an organ is legitimate; stepping beyond, the legitimacy will be highly arguable," said Zhang.
The State-consent principle maintains the balance of interests of all States in a subtle and sustainable way, which helps to maximize the common interests among States, Zhang argued.
"The life of international law comes from and should also serve for the common interests of the international community, which makes the principle of state consent indispensable. But the SCS tribunal seemingly prefers to expand its jurisdiction rather than protect the legitimate interests of the contracting State," said Zhang.
"The Tribunal is probably undercutting the States' already fragile trust towards international judicial and arbitral organs. It might seriously weaken the authority of itself and even of the international judicial bodies as a whole. I started to believe in international justice since high school when I participated and enjoyed Model United Nations activities. What the SCS tribunal did is really disappointing and hurting," she added.
As law students busied themselves with drafting the letter, Wang Zhili, Utrecht University master student in Public International Laws and Finance who has been studying in the Netherlands for more than six years, took up the outreach task of their action.
Together with Peng, they opened social media accounts on Wechat, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter for this purpose and mobilized their friends and classmates to circulate the draft document and collect reactions.
"Most of reports in western media on the SCS arbitration follow the track of their old-style cliches and prejudices against China. You can hardly find any balanced and in-depth article here. I was really shocked by the ignorance of China's arguments when discussing this case with professors and fellow students. That's why we write our open letter in English, Dutch and Chinese. We will spread it far and wide to gather as much support as possible," Wang told Xinhua.
"We do believe that the voice of the truth must be heard," said Peng, the enthusiastic student leader, "One open letter criticizing one single case cannot drive out the shroud of darkness enveloping the world of the international law. Light a candle, you only get a dim light. Pass the candle on, the shadow has nowhere to hide."
