In a telephone interview with State-run Xinhua News Agency, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) clarified that it has no involvement in the South China Sea arbitration, the publication reported.
"There is indeed a confusion. We have made it clear on our website we do not have anything to do with this case," Andrey Poskakukhin, head of the ICJ's Information Department, shared.
On Wednesday, the ICJ released a statement on its official website that it has no hand over the controversial case.
The court "wishes to draw the attention of the media and the public to the fact that the Award in the South China Sea Arbitration was issued by an Arbitral Tribunal acting with the secretarial assistance of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA)," the statement enthused.
"The ICJ, which is a totally distinct institution, has had no involvement in the above mentioned case and, for that reason, there is no information about it on the ICJ's website," it further noted.
The news of clarification comes a day after an ad hoc tribunal denied China's long-standing historical rights over the area. The tribunal was set up upon the unilateral request of the former Philippine administration.
China stands firm on its decision to not accept any action or proposition made by the "law-abusing tribunal, which exceeded its power to rule on a case that it did not have jurisdiction over," the article wrote.
The ICJ, established in June 1945, is the prime judicial organ of the United Nations. Hence its other moniker such as "the world court" of the "UN court." Meanwhile the PCA is a permanent framework launched way back in 1899.
The article explained that the ad hoc tribunal handling the case is not under the PCA, rather, it only uses the court's secretarial services. Nonetheless, the tribunal has strong relations with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).
As of writing, the PCA has not yet responded to Xinhua when asked for a comment on the issue of ICJ's involvement to the arbitration case.