| United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(UNCLOS) has the most significant achievement all over the world. This international comprehensive code has been widely acknowledged among the delegates from different countries on the UNCLOSⅢ, which was held in Jamaica on the Caribbean Sea on December the10th1982, and was adopted in this meeting and became the Constitution of the Sea. This code has reconstructed the new order of the international sea. UNCLOSⅢ has lasted for9years(1973-1982), and experienced11sessions and15meetings all together. At last, the significant agreement has been made and a new law which regulates the order of the international sea emerged. UNCLOS came into effect on November the16th1994. The code consists of17parts, has all together446statutes and9independent annexes. UNCLOS includes many important rules about international laws of the sea, such as territorial sea, contiguous zone, international straits,archipelagic state, exclusive economic zones, the high seas, islands, transit passage, semi-close sea, transit passage, international sea-bed area, marine environment protection, marine science research, development and transference of marine technology and dispute-settled procedures. These systems concern all the problems connected to the sea, and almost contain all the core rules of sea laws, thus provide the legal support for constructing the new order of the international sea.The born of UNCLOS in1982is closely related to the complicated international situation, the change of the international marine pattern, as well as the chess game between developing countries and the powers of marine at that time. UNCLOS being an international code which has unequal distribution on marine interest and rights is decided by the complicated historical background and conditions. In UNCLOS, there are many rights which are not prescribed by the codes or in ambiguously worded way. The field of International Law of the Sea refers them as Residual Rights or Residual Rights of UNCLOS. It is because of these Residual Rights, moreover, the contention for the rights and interests of sea is becoming more and more intense with the development of marine technology and the changing of energy policy of various countries, that some marine powers even ignore the existence of the international convention and the binding of UNCLOS, constantly infringe on the legal sea rights of coast states.The ocean, which covers approximately71percent of the surface of globe, is a goldmine of mineral resources and a natural granary of the future for people. As the development of the global economy and the increasingly consumption of the energy resources, the fight for the sea rights and interests will be more intense in the future, especially the contention for the Residual Rights. As a key element which decides the strategic status of a country in energy resources in21century, the ocean is facing a serious dispute of all countries. On one side, the coast states are protecting their legal rights and interests of the sea. On the other side, some marine powers country are seeking to evade the UNCLOS, in order to get a bigger slice of the international ocean cake. As the ocean decides the development and international status of a country in many aspects, such as politics, economy, military and even culture, the war between developing and developed countries is gradually putting on the stage.The protection of sea rights and interests requires the jointly corporation of all the countries in the world. As a great marine country, the marine science and technology of China needs to be further developed. The purpose of this thesis is through probing into the historical background of Residual Rights of the Sea by historical analysis, to explain the legal attribution and foundation of Residual Rights of the Sea from jurisprudence perspective and by system approach, also to particularly analyse the reflection of Residual Rights in specific field of law system such as territorial sea, exclusive economic zones, international sea-bed area and so on. This thesis also gives a overlook of the condition of the protection of sea rights and interests home and abroad from an international perspective by using contrast analysis method, as well as pointing out the influences of Residual Rights on the protection of the sea rights and interests. At last, under the purpose and principles of UNCLOS, this thesis proposes an opinion on how to define the legal attribution of Residual Rights and protecting China’s sea rights and interests from the perspective of Residual Rights. |
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