Jamalul Kiram II
Sultan Muhammed Jamalul Kiram II (seated), date unknown
Sultan of Sulu
Reign	1894–1915
Predecessor	Jamalul Kiram I
Successor	Title abolished
Born	March 27, 1868 Jolo, Captaincy General of the Philippines, Spanish Empire
Died	7 June 1936(1936-06-07) (aged 51–52) Maimbung, Jolo, Commonwealth of the Philippines
Senator of the Philippines from the 12th district
In office 1931–1934
Appointed by	Dwight F. Davis
Preceded by	Manuel Camus
Succeeded by	Balabaran Sinsuat

Jamalul Kiram II (27 March 1868^[1] – 7 June 1936) was the sultan of Sulu from 1894 to 1915.^[2] During his long reign, he signed treaties with several nations. He served under both Spain and America.

Jamalul Kiram II rose to the throne following Sultan Harun Ar-Rashid allegedly being forced to abdicate in 1894 after Kiram’s Datu supporters elected him to be sultan. Over the following decade, tensions in the American-controlled Philippines would break out into insurrection and war, leading the United States to negotiate the Kiram–Bates Treaty in 1899, believing the Sultan would be able to suppress Moro resistance to American colonization, as well as ensuring Sulu neutrality in the war broadly. Sultan Jamalul Kiram II and other government advisers and datus, most notably Hadji Butu, agreed to the treaty both desiring American economic support to Sulu's dismal finances, alongside fears of American aggression should they decline.

The treaty was retracted on the 2 March 1904 however, with the Office of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declaring the Kiram–Bates Treaty null and void, following the suppression of the Filipinos to the north. With annexation looming, Kiram joined the Moros struggle against the American expansion, prolonging an asymmetrical war across the Sulu Archipelago against superior equipment and manpower reserves the US possessed. After nine years of warfare, Kiram resigned himself to the Carpenter Treaty on 22 March 1915, effectively constituted the fall of the Sulu Sultanate and enshrined full American sovereignty over its former lands. This officially concluded over 400 years of Sulu independent sovereignty, although the war gains had already been organized into the Department of Mindanao and Sulu.

Kiram was appointed as a senator of the Philippines from the 12th district in 1931, serving for one term until 1934.^[3]

Kiram continued to live in his residence at Maimbung for the remainder of his life, dying after kidney troubles there on the 7 June 1936. He did not have any son or heir. Although he had seven daughters, no woman could be appointed as heir or successor according to Islamic law.^[4]

The North Borneo Agreement and Malaysia Sulu Case

During his long reign, Jamalul Kiram II signed many agreements, including a 1878 deal with two European merchants, who were representatives of the British North Borneo Company.^[5] Under this agreement, the Sulu Sultan gave control of lands in North Borneo, now known as Sabah and part of Malaysia, in exchange for an annual fee to be paid by the British.^[6]

There is still debate on whether the Sultan leased or ceded the area of Sabah under the agreement.^[7]

Malaysia inherited the deal in 1963, when the Federation of Malaysia was formed.^[8] However, Malaysia stopped annual payments of 5,300 ringgit ($1,200) to the sultan’s descendants after the bloody Lahad Datu incursion of 2013, carried out by followers of the self-proclaimed Sultan, Jamalul Kiram III.^[9] Years later, eight of these Sulu heirs, who insisted they were not involved in the standoff, hired lawyers to pursue legal action based on the original commercial deal.^[7]

According to the Litigation Finance Journal, this legal dispute between the Malaysian government and the Sulu heirs has been “one of the most high profile international arbitration cases in recent times, raising issues around state sovereignty, and the role of third-party funders in international arbitration”.^[10] Another expert analysis called this a “highly controversial ad hoc arbitration, in which neither the alleged arbitration clause nor the development of the procedure were accepted by the parties or by the courts of the headquarters, Spain”.^[11]

In February 2022, Gonzalo Stampa - the arbitrator for the case - awarded US$14.9 billion to the Sultan of Sulu’s heirs, who have since sought to enforce the award against Malaysian state-owned assets around the world.^[12] It is noteworthy that the High Court of Madrid had annulled the procedure presided over by Stampa, who then moved the case to Paris, where he announced a verdict against Malaysia.^[13] In a crucial recent development, Stampa has been convicted of contempt of court for “knowingly disobeying rulings and orders from the Madrid High Court of Justice”, and sentenced to six months in prison.^[14]

According to Law360, the Spanish courts’ decision to move ahead with criminal proceedings against Stampa is a significant “victory for the Malaysian government”.^[8] This follows two other wins the country secured in the case in June 2023, with a Dutch appeals court refusing to enforce the award on account of Stampa’s annulled appointment by a Spanish court, and a French appeals court similarly blocking the enforcement of the award due to Stampa’s lack of authority on the case.^[8]