(VOVworld)- An international court has given China six months to respond to legal claims by the Philippines regarding disputes between the countries over the East Sea. Backed by the UN, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague gave China until December 15 to file a reply, citing an obligation to give “each party a full opportunity to be heard and to present its case” though China had refused to participate in the case. The Philippines in March presented a 4,000-page testimonial to the tribunal asking them to invalidate the “nine-dash line” in the East Sea – a demarcation on Chinese maps that includes much of the East Sea and asserts that China’s claims over most of the waters. The testimonial includes arguments and legal evidence denouncing China’s claims of sovereignty to much of the East Sea, which is invalid and illegal according to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.