However, some members' stances in past cases are questionable as they have set the precedent of expanding tribunal jurisdiction at will and ignoring sovereignty issues.
Wolfrum, who was designated by Manila in the South China Sea arbitration case, participated in an arbitration case over the Chagos Archipelago dispute between Britain and Mauritius from December 2010 to March 2015. He was an arbitrator designated by Mauritius in the case.
Britain maintained that the tribunal had no jurisdiction over the case as it touched upon sovereignty issues. But Wolfrum, along with other arbitrators, rejected Britain's appeal.
When the Netherlands sued Russia after the latter's navy boarded and detained the crew of a Dutch vessel in waters off the Russian coast in 2013, Moscow asserted that the court had no jurisdiction in the matter and refused to participate in the hearings.
Wolfrum, who was not an arbitrator in the Russian case, released an opinion with another judge, in which they strongly criticized Russia's stance.
International law experts say that the long-standing opinion that an arbitrator holds on some kind of dispute may influence his or her judgement in other cases, prompting him or her to make a presumptive decision and affecting the impartiality of arbitration.
Shunji Yanai knows this all too well. He also knows that he can easily create a tribunal biased against China by choosing some arbitrators who are more inclined to ignore sovereignty issues.
Of course, biased arbitrators are not enough. The role of the United States as global policeman was key.
Evidence shows that the United States has long been instigating and manipulating the Philippines to act on a so-called legal front.
Experts point out that without the careful planning of the Untied States, the Philippines alone would not have been able to file the arbitration case.
The U.S. legal team not only appeared before the ad hoc tribunal, but also took charge of the drafting of the several-thousand page legal document.
But the most important merit of the legal team, said the experts, is its inextricable connection with the tribunal.
U.S. lawyer Bernard Oxman, who represented the Philippines in the arbitration, had previously worked with Shunji on many occasions.
Oxman also has close ties to the U.S. government. He used to be the Assistant Legal Adviser for Oceans, Environment, and Scientific Affairs of the U.S. Department of State from 1968 to 1977.
Oxman was also the vice-president of the U.S. delegation to the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) and one of the coordinators of the English language group of the drafting committees of the Conference. This despite the fact that the United State has yet to join UNCLOS.
Experts point to the fact that the complicated and inextricable connections between the arbitrators and the Japanese and U.S. governments as well as the Philippines have constituted a huge network of political interests, which trampled justice by abusing the international law and order.
