Before non-European regions adopted international law, a different set of the law of territory governed the non-European regions. Notwithstanding their differences, the international courts and tribunals have approached non-European territorial disputes through a single lens of Eurocentric international law. The general claim of this paper is that the international courts and tribunals should approach non-European territorial disputes with special consideration to account for the region’s historical system. This paper case studies the China-Vietnam dispute in the South China Sea to advance this claim. Through the case study, I argue that East Asian concepts of sovereignty do not equate with those employed by Eurocentric international law. I then suggest guidelines for considering regional systems when ruling on non-European territorial disputes. If the international courts and tribunals do not change their legal approach, this not only distorts the historic realities of the non-European regions but also results in unfair dispute settlements.