大陆架界限委员会如何处理“争端”

The Rules and the Practices of the CLCS in Handling the Disputed Submissions

根据《联合国海洋法公约》(简称《公约》)规定,沿海国可以主张200海里以外的大陆架(简称“外大陆架”)。为此,沿海国应将外大陆架界限(简称“外部界线”)信息(简称“划界案”)提交根据《公约》成立的大陆架界限委员会(简称“委员会”)。委员会则依据《公约》第76(4)-(6)条的规定审议划界案是否合乎规范,并向沿海国提出建议,沿海国在这些建议的基础上划定外大陆架外部界线应有确定性和拘束力。依照委员会《议事规则》附件一第5(a)条,若一个陆地或海洋争端国向委员会提出划界案(简称“提案国”),委员会收到其他争端国(简称“照会国”)通告划界案涉及争端的照会,则不应审议该划界案。委员会若是得到争端所有当事国的同意,则可以审理涉及争端的划界案。本文使用条约解释的方法,通过“上下文”来解释《议事规则》附件一第5(a)条的条文意义,并梳理委员会成立24年来处理涉及争端的所有划界案的实践,分析提案国和照会国的主张,以及在不同情况下委员会如何处理涉及争端的划界案。借此对委员会该如何处理马来西亚于2019年12月提出的(涉及争端的)南海外大陆架划界案做出预测。

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(UNCLOS)regulates a coastal State's establishment of the outer limits of its continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles.The coastal State shall submit the information for delineating the outer limits to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf(CLCS)that will evaluate the submission according to Article 76(4)-(6)before providing the recommendations.Based on these recommendations,the outer limits delineated by the coastal State shall be final and binding.The CLCS shall not consider the submission made by any State concerned in a land or maritime dispute,unless consent of all party States to the dispute are given under Paragraph 5(a)of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure of the CLCS.This paper interprets Paragraph 5(a)in its context,examines the subsequent practices of those States sending submissions and/or notifying the disputes with or without consent and the CLCS practices in handling various submissions involved in different kinds of disputes for past 24 years.With this mind,the readers can predict the outcome of the submission made by Malaysia in December,2019.