Can International Law be a theme for MISO?

The Economist published an on-line article from their 16 July 16 Print edition, “The South China Sea – Courting Trouble” (see: http://www.economist.com/news/china/21702069-region-and-america-will-now-anxiously-await-chinas-response-un-appointed-tribunal?cid1=cust/ednew/n/bl/n/20160714n/owned/n/n/nwl/n/n/NA/n; which is also the photo source.)

The upshot of the article  is that “the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international tribunal in The Hague, has declared China’s “historic claims” in the South China Sea invalid”. The details of the case are not necessarily important here, and you can read about them in the article or elsewhere.

From a MISO perspective, let’s say you’re in a conflict where a case has gone to this venue or another respected international jurisdiction and the verdict came down on your side. Does this make it a great theme for MISO?

You might be tempted to jump to the conclusion that a respected international venue would certainly be a great justification and MISO theme. However, like many things legal related – it depends.

If your audience is one that respects international law and that court in particular and/or the audience is more or less in favor of your argument, then it just might work.

Unfortunately if your audience doesn’t believe that the court is fair or if the audience is  blatantly and perhaps irrationally opposed to your point of view , then your “international law argument” is not likely to be very effective.

If you run the campaign anyway, you might convince some people, but more likely you will provide fodder for the adversary.

Reader input encouraged!