依据“主权联系”裁断海洋地物主权问题的法律方法

The Legal Method of Deciding Sovereignty Questions of Maritime Features by Sovereign Connections

在海洋地物主权争端中,当事国可能声称争议岛屿是邻近领土的附属地物,与其他领土或海域构成一个整体,或者多个争议地物自身构成单一单元,并据此种主权联系声索争议地物的主权。在国际司法实践中,主权联系未被视为一种独立的主权权源,而是被当成一种裁断海洋地物主权问题的法律方法。借助这种方法,国际法院和其他国际法庭可能会依据附属关系直接判定争议岛礁的主权,或基于地理临近原则推定争议地物的主权归属某一方,或将多个争议地物视为单一单元一并判定其主权归属。当事国不能针对各争议地物逐一创设明确的权源是适用主权联系方法的前提条件,能够推定争议地物与其他领土存在同一权源是必要的客观条件,当事国没有提出明确的反对意见是主观条件。当事国可基于相关历史、地理和主权活动等证据来证明有关地物存在其所主张的主权联系。

In sovereignty disputes over maritime features,the disputant states often claim that the island at issue is a dependency of the adjacent territory,forms a whole together with other territories and sea areas,or that the disputed maritime features themselves constitute a single unit in terms of territorial sovereignty.In international judicial practices,the sovereign connection has not been regarded as a separate title to territory but rather a legal method of deciding sovereignty questions.Through this legal method,the international tribunals may determine the sovereignty of the disputed island by the dependency relationship it has with an adjacent principal territory,make a presumption in favour of one party by proximity,or treat the features as one or more groups with identical titles and determine their sovereignty in a collective manner.A precondition for a recourse to the sovereign connection legal method is an absence of any clearly established titles to the features at issue.An objective requirement is that the territories concerned have or can be presumed to have an identical title.A subjective requirement is a broad agreement between the parties.The States concerned may try to prove the existence of the sovereign connections as alleged by historic,geographic,and sovereign acts evidence.