从刻赤海峡事件看《联合国海洋法公约》下“军事活动”之认定

The Determination of the Military Activities under the UNCLOS in the Kerch Strait Incident

2018年11月25日,俄罗斯与乌克兰在刻赤海峡爆发冲突。乌克兰随后依据《联合国海洋法公约》(以下简称"《公约》")附件七提起诉讼,并向国际海洋法法庭(以下简称"法庭")申请规定临时措施,要求俄罗斯释放船员和军舰。该事件是否为关于海洋法上军事活动乃是管辖权审理过程中最为核心的问题。然而,法庭在审理过程中所运用的认定方式不免提高了军事活动的认定门槛,或使得各国所作的关于《公约》第298条第1款(b)项的管辖排除性声明沦为一纸空文。本文简要梳理刻赤海峡事件的前因后果,并分析国际海洋法庭在审理过程中应如何认定军事活动。

On 25 November 2018,a conflict took place between Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea near the Kerch Strait.On 31 March 2019,Ukraine instituted arbitral proceedings under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(hereinafter referred to as"the Convention").Ukraine subsequently filed with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea(hereinafter referred to as the"Tribunal"or"ITLOS")a request for the prescription of provisional measures.To address the jurisdiction issues,as this paper argues,the Tribunal needs to first and foremost determine whether the disputes between Russia and Ukraine concerned military activities when it dealt with the request of provisional measures.In addition,I critically assess the Tribunal’s criteria for determining what counts as a military activity.The Tribunal,in this case,will inevitably raise the threshold of identification of the military activities which,in turn,may render the declarations made by States under Article 298(1)(b)of the Convention totally ineffective.To reach the right way of determining military activities,this paper will firstly provide a summary of the entire process of the conflict and then speculate on how the Tribunal should determine what counts as a military activity.