A Study On The Interactive Relationship Between China And The United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (hereafter referred to as the Convention) came into force formally on November 16, 1994, which indicates the establishment of the international marine new order. The coming into force of the Convention has already brought and is bringing great influence to marine pattern of the world. As the main origin of the modern law of the sea and authoritative file, the Convention has exerted a great force on our country and becomes a legislative authority for the marine action of our country and a legislative reference basis for the domestic ocean legislation. And at the same time, because of the fact that a convention is usually the compromising result among countries, a country which serves as the subject of international law can also do some reasonable and appropriate explanations to some related issues according to the national interests in the framework of the Convention to take an active part in the construction of the international marine institution.In this thesis, the author tries to starts with the historical process during which China took participated in the legislation of the Convention and analyzes the affecting factors in the domain of the marine legal construction and concludes some experiences and lessons China should draw from some marine-law-legislating conferences. A special analysis is given to the tremendous influence on China's marine legislation and practice caused by a couple of main legal systems prescribed by the Convention and also given to how our country effectively protects our marine rights and participates in international marine legislation activities in the face of the situation of great development of the world marine cause. Thus the author puts forward the new goal for our country's marine legal work in the new era: on the premise of paying attention to the marine rights and interests and strengthening marine consciousness, we should actively participate in international marine affairs and put forward our own opinion to adjust and improve of the Convention as well as strengthening the domestic marine legal system construction at the request of the ConventionThe thesis is divided into six parts. In part one, a brief introduction is given to the historical process of the interactive relationship between China and the Convention. And a review is presented to the historical process that China participates in the meetings of the marine law of the United Nations. And at the same time, the author combs stage by stage our country's marine legislative practice influenced by the international marine law after new China was established. In part two, the author analyzes the interactive relationship between China and the Convention starting with territorial sea system and contiguous zone system. First of all, a summary is made to introduce the establishment and development of territorial sea system and contiguous zone system; then, the author briefly describes the claim of China's territorial sea and contiguous zone and analyzes both positive and negative influences on China of the active territorial sea system and contiguous zone system. Part three contains the analysis of the interactive relationship between China and the Convention from the angle of the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf system. Firstly, the author depicts the establishment and development of the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf system; secondly, she expounds China's legal claim about the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf system in the constitution process of the Convention and in addition, it is analyzed that China's demarcative theory and practice with respect to the continental shelf, regarding the East China Sea demarcation problem between China and Japan as the example.In part four, the interactive relationship between China and the Convention is analyzed from the aspect of the international regional system of sea floor. Firstly, it is elaborated how the international regional system of sea floor was set up and developed and how it affected China; secondly, the achievements and contribution made by China concerning international regional system of sea floor are analyzed; and at last, the relevant actions that China should strengthen in developing in the international sea floor are proposed. Part five includes the interactive relationship between China and the Convention in terms of environmental protection system of ocean. Among this part, it is introduced respectively what basic position China held about the ocean environmental protection during and after the birth of the Convention. And an analysis is also given to the influence of international ocean environmental protection system on its China's equivalent and given to China's cooperation with other countries concerning ocean environmental protection, including global cooperation, regional cooperation and bilateral cooperation. In part six, the author mainly presents some of her thinking regarding China participates in international institutional improvement of ocean. Firstly, the author concludes some experiences and lessons China acquired from some marine-law-legislating conferences; on this basis, an imagination about our country's future marine legal construction is made: to strengthen marine consciousness; to set up the political great strategy in ocean; to pay attention to the interactive relation between international marine law and domestic marine law; to attach importance to the correlation between the marine law and non-marine law in our domestic legal system and at last, to strengthen the international cooperation of the marine affairs and to participate in the international marine institutional improvement actively.