Research On The Historic Right In The International Law

Historic right is a concept in the International law. It is becoming a hot spot issue with the fact that the dispute concerning the Arctic passage and the East China Sea is upgrading, that countries like Canada and Russia is referring the historic right theory to claim their authority in Arctic passage, and that some Chinese scholars propose Chinese government claiming its authority in the “remaining maritime water” in South China Sea, apart from the islands and their 12-sea-mile territorial water, with the historic right theory. However, neither the case law in the international court or the Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone and the Convention on the Law of Sea has given the concept of the historic right. “Juridical Regime of Historic waters including historic bays” is a report prepared by the Secretariat of the International Law Commission, which is the main authority in this field. Thus, the theory of historic right still needs to be clarified. The clarification of the concept as well as the application of the theory of historic right will be helpful to settle the disputes of the international maritime territory and the world peace and prosperity.This thesis will research on the historic right on the issues such as its definition, its structure and the difference between it and other method of getting territory. The emphasis will be put on the analysis on the question whether the Northwest Passage and the Northeast Passage is the historic water of Canada and Russia respectively, and before that a brief introduction of the reasons Canada and Russia provide to claim their historic right to the Northwest Passage and the Southwest Passage and the reaction of other countries like United States and European Union countries. Finally, a conclusion that Canada and Russia may not claim their historic right in the Northwest Passage and the Southwest Passage respectively will be given.This thesis will make a discussion in the following four aspects: the first part is the overlook of the historic right, and the emphasis will be given on the difference and relevance among the historic right, the historic bays and the historic waters. Historic right is the theoretical basis for historic waters which is the subject matter of the historic right, and historic bays are included in historic waters. Historic title is one type of historic right which refers to historic title in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The second part introduces and compares the different opinions concerning the structure of the historic right in the report prepared by the Secretariat of the International Law Commission and of some Chinese scholars, and conclude that there are three requirements of the historic waters. The first is the coastal state’s actual exercise of authority over the waterclaimed. The second is the continuity of such authority. The third is the general toleration of foreign states with regard to the coastal state’s practice. The third part is the international legal status of the historic right. Firstly, weintroducetwo opinions concerning the status of the historic right on the international customary law and make comments on both two opinions and reach a conclusion. Secondly, we discusses the status of the historic right in the Convention on the Law of Sea. The fourth part concerns the question of whether Canada and Russia have the historic right on the Northwest Passage and the Southwest Passage respectively. Firstly, a brief introduction and the significance of its usage of the Arctic passage will be given. Secondly, we will analysis the rationality of the authority of Northwest Passage and Northeast Passage by Canada and Russia respectively and the reaction of other countries such as United States and the European Union countries. Then, we reach the conclusion that both countries may not claim historic right on the Arctic passage by detailed analysis.