Study On Residual Rights Of The Exclusive Economic Zone Under The United Nation Convention On The Law Of The Sea

Adopted in 1982, United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea is a code of the sea. Many important rules of the convention, such as the territorial sea, Exclusive Economic Zone, International sea-bed area and so on, offer the basic law structure for mankind and establish the new order of the sea. Among all of the rules, Exclusive Economic Zone has been recognized as the most important rule in the convention as well as the greatest achievement of the modern law of the sea.Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the sea was finally ended nine years later with the adoption of the United Nation Convention on the Law of the sea. As a comprehensive treaty for the oceans, the United Nation Convention on the Law of the sea embodies both conflicts of interest and balance among the countries. These features can easily be found in the rules on Exclusive Economic Zone. However, functioned as the most important international law in the world with a large number of members, these features are inevitable because of the historical situation and restrictions when it was laid down. The large amount of residual rights in the convention cannot be avoided too.Residual rights are the right that the law has not stipulated or forbidden in law. In the United Nation Convention on the Law of the sea, residual rights are those rights that did not been written or used implicit words. Such rights are centralized in the Exclusive Economic Zone. Owing to the limit specific definition of the residual rights, conflicts in this regime has become the most difficult and complex issues during the international exchange. In addition, the regime also involves the core interests including the sovereignty, security and resource exploration and exploitation which cannot be neglected. Therefore, it's crucial to analyze the residual rights in the context of the international law of the sea and provide useful advices in dealing the relation with other countries.The whole thesis consists of five parts.The first part introduces the residual rights in the international law of the sea. The residual rights are the right that the law has not stipulated or forbidden in writing. By introducing the development of three session of the United Nation Convention on the Law of the sea, indicating the law of the sea was changed along with development of international relation on sea. Countries in the world have now actively fighting for their benefits of the sea instead of insist the old idea that the sea is for all. Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the sea has setup new order for the modern law of the sea and the more and more countries are now seeking for residual rights created by the convention.The second part examines the Exclusive Economic Zone in details. As the most important rules of the convention, the regime is unique in legal status as well as in location. It adjusts the two different regimes for jurisdiction of the sea areas in terms of enlarging the jurisdiction of the costal state and narrowing the freedom of the high sea. Therefore it best represent the residual rights exist in the convention. The specific rights stipulated in the convention and differences between the costal state and the other countries are analyzed in details for the next part.The third part analyses the residual rights in Exclusive Economic Zone with cases. This includes the issues on military use, marine scientific research and the protection and preservation of the marine environment, standards of the exploitation on biological resources, the solution for the conflicts between related countries. Through cases, the conclusion can be reached by fully consider the whole convention and international practices.The third part introduces the practices of typically counties in utilizing the residual rights. This contains the possible solutions to solve the conflicts emerge from handling issues on residual rights in Exclusive Economic Zone.The final part focuses on china, especially the huge gap between the international practices on protecting its own residual rights in the Exclusive economic zone. The inadequate protections on our own rights of the sea can trigger dangerous situation in nowadays. Effective solutions can only be functioned with comprehensive development in legislation and make full use of the international judicial approaches.As a developing country, China has to resist the hegemony on the sea and highly values the residual rights in the Law of the sea; it's also needed to attach great importance to safeguard the crucial natural resources and other benefits in many ways. Only by doing so, can China pursuit the sustainable development in a way that both comply with the convention and benefit the world peace.