| At present,with the development of human marine scientific and technological strength and the growing need of national living space expansion,artificial construction activities gradually stretched from the mainland coast to the maritime features in the ocean,typically on their sovereign islands,rocks,low-tide elevations,or on low-tide elevations and submerged features under sovereign rights.The rapid development of science and technology is graciously assisting countries to shape the maritime features that are not be able to sustain human habitation and economic life into "new continent"which can provide full range of living space for human beings.However,this kind of artificial construction practice has also brought new challenges for the international law area as it has brought economic and social prosperity for the sovereign state:will the maritime features change their legal status after artificial construction?So far,the answer is not directly accessible from the existing international law,but the current international law has set a series of relevant international legal systems that could be of some help to solve the mentioned question.For example,the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defines specific types of maritime features such as islands,rocks,low-tide elevations and sub-merged features in the oceans,and also defines the legal status of "artificial islands".However,there is no corresponding legal system within the international law frame to identify the legal status of such kind of new features,which combines natural component and artificial attributes.This discussion is of great importance since the legal status variation of a maritime feature after human construction has significant influence for claiming maritime rights from a sovereign state,setting out delimitation strategy for overlapping maritime zones and also for the maintenance of common heritage of mankind.China began to carry out large-scale artificial construction activities at the Spratly Islands since the end of 2013,a great number of western countries and Southeast Asian countries have accused China of violation of international law for carrying out such projects,and claimed that China is building artificial islands under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,which,however,can only enjoy no more than 500 meters of the safe zone with a limited jurisdiction within the scope of the safety zone.Once this view is approved internationally,China will take the risk of losing its rights to the vast scope of its maritime features in the Spratly islands.The lag of international law and the dilemma we are facing in Spratly Island,calls for our creative use of existing international law to solve the practical problems of defining the legal status of maritime features with artificial construction.On the basis of fully analyzing the legal status of different maritime features stipulated in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.This article tries to analysis different comments regarding whether the legal status of different maritime features would alter or not after artificial construction by means of reviewing the existing relevant academic research and papers.As a result,the author applies these views to Chinese practice in the Spratly Islands construction,and analyzes the possible enlightenment and reference value form the current study result for breaking through the dilemma of artificial construction in the Spratly Islands. |
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