The paper examines dispute settlement in practice through an overview of developments in the South China Sea region. It first studies dispute settlement arrangements from the international legal perspectives by examining the Charter of the United Nations and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. As a case study, the South China Sea region is assessed in regard to progress made and challenges persisted in dispute settlement and conflict management. The progress made is outlined through an overview of settled and managed territorial disputes in the South China Sea and adjacent area, followed by an analysis of settlement and management approaches. The challenge of the unsettled disputes is analysed and assessed by highlighting both the nature of the disputes and the efforts in managing them. The paper is concluded by a broader assessment of the progress made in terms of dispute settlement as well as of the remaining challenges in the South China Sea region from the perspectives of dispute settlement, in light of the international legal mechanisms.