Research On Mandatory Mediation Procedures In The United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea

The compulsory conciliation procedure of Article 298 of UN Convention on the Law of the Sea(hereinafter referred to as "the Convention")is a dispute settlement procedure.One of the parties submits the dispute to the conciliation procedure without the consent of the other party.the parties to the dispute have agreed to accept such a conciliation procedure as a means of settling the dispute in the time of accession to the Convention,so there is different from the optional conciliation process in general because of the compulsion of entering the procedure.The conclusion is not same as the compulsory procedures entailing binding decisions provided in the section 2 of the Convention,the procedure is conciliation in essence,the report of the conciliation shall not be binding upon the parties.In the marine area,the competition between countries is becoming more fierce than before.The settlement of maritime disputes does not depend solely on political methods,and legal methods begin to be preferred.China has made a declaration and statement of reservations and exception to the article 298 of the Convention,It is possible that the neighboring countries will file a compulsory conciliation procedure against China.At present,China are relatively weak in the research of the procedures compared with the West.Therefore,it may be foreshadowed that they will be passive in the compulsory conciliation process in the future.In the context of the "matter of a conciliation between Australia and Timor Leste",Regarding the conditions for the commencement of compulsory conciliation proceedings of the decision,in conjunction with the relevant articles of the Convention and the legislative background at the time when the procedure was legislated,we'll found that the decision in respect of jurisdiction is unlawful,it also reflects that the conciliation committee has a great deal of power to decide on jurisdiction.Therefore,in order to prevent third-party agencies from impacting on the settlement of the dispute,China should resolve the dispute earlier by adopting a peaceful method of its own choosing.