| The issue of the legal status of islands has been put forward on theConference for the Codification of the International Law as early as in1930. The1958Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone,for the first time in history, distinguished the islands and low-tideelevations, provided them different legal status. The Single NegotiatingText which is formed in the conference of seabed committee, provided thatthe territorial sea, the exclusive economic zone of an island aredetermined in accordance with the provisions applicable to other landterritory. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(referredto as UNCLOS) was passed on April30th,1982by the Third UN Conference onthe Law of the Sea, and it came into effect on November16th,1994.The UNCLOS consists of the preamble and17parts of provisions, andit includes the legal regimes of the territorial sea, the contiguous zone,the exclusive economic zone, the continental shelf, the high seas and soon. The Law of the Sea provides the regime of islands in Part VIII, andit was composed of only one article, that is Article121. The content ofArticle121includes the definition of islands, the differentiation ofislands and rocks, as well as the legal status of islands. As to theeffectiveness of the islands in the marine delimitation, it was notmentioned in the Convention. The Convention is a product of compromiseof interests of all countries, therefore, the deficiencies of Article121has been highlighted increasingly in the international practice.There are3million square kilometres of marine jurisdiction areas, a wealth of resources of islands, four sea areas in China which are theBohai, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea. Thereare different degrees of contradictions and disputes in aspects of themarine delimitation, the sovereignty of islands and the interests ofnatural resources in the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South ChinaSea, as a result of the distance of the marine areas between China andits adjacent countries are no more than400nautical miles. The SoutheastAsian neighboring countries constantly stir up trouble in the South ChinaSea in recent years. They conducted a series of acts which are violatingChina’s sovereignty over this marine area, such as landing on the islands,constructing various facilities and so on, and attempts to turn the SouthChina Sea an international issue. The key of the issue of the South ChinaSea lies in the sovereignty of Nansha Islands and the delimitation of themarine area.This paper starts with the analysis of the provision of the regimeof islands of the UNCLOS. This paper focuses on the study of the legalnature and the role of islands in the delimitation, accompany with thestudy of the theory of regime of islands and the practice of states inthis area. This paper also talks about the existing problems of islandsin different sea area of China, especially the specific legal status ofthe islands and rocks in Nansha and the role they would play in the marinedelimitation.There are three parts in this paper. The first part is the theoreticalstudy of the legal status of islands and rocks. It analyses therelationship between the island and the rock provided in the Convention,as well as the differences among low-tide elevation, artificial islands,archipelago and islands in the first place, as to make clear the conceptionof islands and rocks. Then it comes to analysis the constitutiverequirements of islands and rocks. This part mainly solves the relation of the island and rocks as well as their distinctive legal status. Thesecond part mainly discusses the effectiveness of islands in the marinedelimitation. There are detailed introduction of the effectiveness ofdelimitation of islands in two cases respectively, which are thedelimitation of national jurisdictional marine areas and the delimitationbetween states with adjacent or opposite coasts. Part III is about theintroduction of the present situation and the analysis of specificproblems of the islands of China. Firstly, it briefly introduces thedisputes of islands existing in each separate sea areas. Secondly, itconcentrates on the waters of Nansha Islands, and discusses the legalstatus of Nansha Islands from two separate aspects, which are NanshaIslands as a geographily, legally whole and each specific island or rock. |
