The Evolution Of The Oceanic Islands System In Mainland China And Its Impact On China 's South China Sea

The regime of mid-ocean archipelagos has emerged and evolved along with the development of territorial sea and archipelago system. Since 1930, mid-ocean archipelagos has begun to draw serious attention from the international community. However, due to various political and legal factors, till now, provisions with respect to mid-ocean archipelagos have not yet been embodied in any international convention. In practice, prior to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, continental states with mid-ocean archipelagos, such as Denmark, Norway and Spain, have adopted the principle of “delimitation as a whole” to determine the baselines of their mid-ocean archipelagos. After the court in the 1951 Anglo-Norwegian Fisheries Case has affirmed Norway’s practice to use straight baselines to determine its costal lines, these countries has since expedited their legislations on mid-ocean archipelagos.In this thesis, the author will go over certain significant international conferences, researches by international institutions and renowned scholars and legal practices of some representative states concerning mid-ocean archipelagos, thereby exploring some insights and inspirations towards the China-Philippines South China Sea Territorial Disputes. In conclusion, the author holds that even though the provisions of archipelagic baselines in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are not applicable to mid-ocean archipelagos, using straight baseline system to delimit mid-ocean archipelagos as a whole has become an established international practice. Therefore, Philippines’ claim of delimiting certain archipelagos in South China Sea separately rather than treating them as a whole lacks reasonableness and is without any foundations.