Shicun Wu, is president and senior research fellow at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, and deputy director of China Center for Collaborative Studies of the South China Sea, Nanjing University. Mark J. Valencia is an internationally known maritime policy analyst, political commentator and consultant focused on Asia. Most recently he was a research associate with the National Asia Research Program. Previously he was a visiting senior fellow at the Maritime Institute of Malaysia and a visiting senior scholar at Japan's Ocean Policy Research Foundation. He has a PhD in Oceanography from the University of Hawaii. Nong Hong is Executive Director of the Institute for China-America Studies (Washington D.C.), and also a research fellow with the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, and China Institute, University of Alberta. Dr Hong received her PhD of interdisciplinary study of international law and international relations from the University of Alberta, Canada and held a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the University's China Institute.

UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the South China Sea