The alleged Chinas territorial claims based on the nine-dash line were

inconsistent with international law and demanded that China clarify its
position with respect to the line. The Philippine criticism when it filed a
case to UN arbitrators, saying that Chinas nine-dash line violated the UN
Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
The nine-dash line is also called the South China Sea dotted line, the
traditional maritime boundary line, the U-shaped line, etc., all referring to
the maritime delimitation line set by the Chinese government in 1947 and
made officially public the following year. A U-shaped chain of a dotted line
(originally with 11 dots dropped to 9 after the Chinese government removed
the two in the Beibu Bay area in 1953) outlining Chinas territorial claims in
the South China Sea has become a regular attachment to the Chinese map,
constituting a key legal position of Chinas claimed rights and interests in
the South China Sea, and standing as an invaluable heritage of China.
The nine-dash line was not published internationally aside from a Chinese
map. Even if the nine-dash line was issued in 1947, it could not have had
any legal effect

The Philippines claim is based mainly on Article 76 of the UNCLOS as it

provides the framework for establishing the rights granted in Article 77 to
littoral states affected by the controversy. UNCLOS compartmentalized the
common heritage of man into various maritime zones consisting of the
territorial sea, contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone, and the high seas.