《联合国海洋法公约》整体性及其对条约解释的限制——以南海仲裁案裁决为例

The Integrity of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and Its Limitations on Treaty Interpretations:With the South China Sea Arbitration Award as the Example

《联合国海洋法公约》(以下简称《公约》)的整体性是实现缔约国之间的利益及权利义务平衡的前提。从条约解释的视角来看《,公约》整体性的重要意义不言而喻。《公约》作为“一揽子协议”暗含整体性要求,《公约》的整体性同样体现于争端解决机制的设计初衷上,但整体性不能被理解为规范事项上的周延性。南海仲裁案裁决在《公约》与一般国际法的关系、大陆国家远海群岛整体性、岛屿制度等问题上的不当的法律解释和适用对《公约》整体性造成贬损,裁决对《公约》有关条款“司法造法”式的解释,可能进一步导致缔约国适用《公约》的国际实践碎片化和国际法的不成体系化。

The integrity of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is a prerequisite for achieving a balance of interests and rights and obligations among the signatories.From the perspective of treaty interpretation,the integrity of the Convention is of great significance.As a“package agreement”,the Convention embodies the requirements of the treaty integrity.The integrity of the Convention is also reflected in its original intension for the design of dispute settlement mechanisms,but its wholeness cannot be understood as the extension of normative matters.The South China Sea Arbitration Award has derogated the integrity of the Convention with its improper treaty interpretations and applications in terms of the relationship between the Convention and general international law,the wholeness of offshore archipelagoes of continental states and the island system.Furthermore,the“judicial law-making”interpretations of some clauses of the Convention made in this award may fragment the international practice in the signatories’application of the Convention,and disintegrate the systematicity of international law.