The Research On The Regime Of Islands In The International Law Of The Sea

Nowadays,the international community is in the critical period of governance system reform.In the game of governance rights,problems such as Okinotorishima reef and South China Sea archipelago continue to emerge.China,as an emerging power in the governance game,has gradually normalized its maritime disputes with other countries.In December 2019,the United Nations held the seventy fourth session of the conference,which discussed the oceans and the law of the sea in the forty second plenary session,showing that there is a trend of in-depth development of the rules that represent the law of the sea.Because the disputes in China's sea area are mostly related to the island system in the law of the sea,and since the development trend of modern ocean reflects the deep and practical development trend,there is less comprehensive analysis on the practice of the island system in the world from the perspective of the development trend of modern ocean in China.Therefore,based on the system related to islands in the modern maritime law,this paper sorts out the national practice related to island system in the international community,analyzes the challenges faced in the development of island system,and devotes itself to drawing China's response strategies.This paper is divided into four parts except the introduction and conclusion.In the first part,by analyzing the development history of the island system in the law of the sea,we know how the island system came into being,and make a connection and comparison between the different stages of the island system in the development of the law of the sea,so as to clarify the essence and development trend of the island system.This part divides the development process of modern island system into three stages.In the first stage,the maritime power can obtain the sovereignty of the island by preemption.In the second stage,the coastal states delimit the baseline of territorial sea based on the offshore islands,which have similar status with the mainland.In the third stage,the islands have territorial sea and continental shelf.The second part introduces the main content,legislative purpose and value of the island system in the development of modern maritime law,in order to determine the connotation and extension of the island system in international law.This part involves the main rules related to the island system in the modern law of the sea.It mainly introduces and analyzes the rules in the law of the sea,the disputes among different schools in the international community and the current mainstream views in the international community.At the same time,it analyzes the game between countries when these rules come into being and explores the real purpose behind them,so as to lay the foundation for the analysis of the challenges faced by the development of modern island system in the third part of this paper.The third part,based on the rules of the island system in the law of the sea,analyzes the causes of the problems and the ways of practice under the influence of the problems.After a summary and analysis of the problems in the practice of island system in various countries,they can be roughly classified into four categories.The controversial part in the determination of natural islands mainly compares the cases in which the International Court of justice affirmed the legal status of islands for the first time with the cases in which the Continental shelf delimitation Commission rejected the application for legal positioning of islands;the artificial islands part compares the cases in the law of the sea and the international environment,respectively In the principles of law and international law,the rules related to artificial islands are sorted out,and it is found that these Provisions are short and simple regulations for artificial islands.On this basis,the paper analyzes the impact of the archipelago system through relevant cases;in the part of archipelago system,the paper analyzes the scope of application of the archipelago system by sorting out the demarcation methods applied by the mainland countries in the world,including the practice of Nansha Islands in China.In the part of island development and utilization,through the analysis of the practice of the international community,it is found that the development and utilization of islands are regulated by domestic laws based on the principles of international law;The fourth part,China's policy on island system and the way to deal with disputes with other countries,mainly compares and analyzes three cases of Okinotorishima reef,South China sea reef construction and unmanned island development with the third part.We can get the challenge of the development of island system.First,we should focus on strengthening the disputes in the practice of the island system and make solutions as early as possible;second,we should be good at using the limits of the terms of reference of international institutions to deal with the unreasonable requirements of some countries in disputes involving international institutions.Refine the composition of the domestic island system and deal with international issues.Third,Nansha Islands should affirm its status as an archipelago.The determination of its baseline should be temporarily shelved or analogically applied to the archipelago linear baseline system.At the same time,we should speed up the promotion of the code of conduct in the South China Sea and increase the dependence of each country in the South China Sea.Fourth,we should pay attention to the value of artificial islands in the disputed sea areas and formulate relevant domestic laws to provide a legal basis for it.At the same time,China's Island Development and utilization should refer to the issues on marine development discussed at the 74th session of the United Nations in December 2019 to formulate relevant rules and improve its status in domestic law.