外大陆架权利的新制约——国际法院“尼加拉瓜外大陆架案”批判

A New Constraint on the Entitlement to an Outer Continental Shelf:A Critical Perspective on the Nicaragua Outer Continental Shelf Case of the ICJ

国际法院在“尼加拉瓜外大陆架案”中宣告,根据习惯国际法,一国的外大陆架权利不得扩展至他国200海里范围内。国际法院的这一观点值得商榷。《联合国海洋法公约》(下文简称《公约》)中没有这样的明文规定。国际法院在分析中强调专属经济区和大陆架制度相互联系,然而《公约》维护的是大陆架而非专属经济区的完整性。根据《公约》第56条第3款,专属经济区的海床底土可以与上覆水域分离,由此沿海国对专属经济区的权利并不能阻止邻国的外大陆架在其200海里范围内扩展。国际法院认为《公约》中含有一个“假定”,即外大陆架仅会延伸至那些或将位于国际海底区域的海域,但国际法院对《公约》的这一解释存在明显问题。国际法院所认定的习惯国际法规则是否满足国际习惯的构成要件同样颇值得怀疑。实际上,将他国的200海里界限作为外大陆架的制约线不仅改变了《公约》建立的海域制度,而且也不符合划定国家管辖海域外部界限以及国家间边界的一般规则。根据《公约》,沿海国的大陆架从领海以外一直扩展至按照第76条划定的外部界限。当一国的外大陆架扩展至他国的200海里范围内时,应当通过划界解决它们之间的权利重叠问题。国际法院试图消除此类大陆架划界,但却给相关国家造成了如何确立彼此间海上边界的难题。

The International Court of Justice(ICJ)declares in the Nicaragua Outer Continental Shelf Case that,under customary international law,a State's entitlement to an outer continental shelf may not extend within 200 nautical miles from another State.The view is debatable.There are no such explicit provisions in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(UNCLOS).The ICJ highlights in the analysis that the regimes of the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf are interrelated.However,the UNCLOS preserves the unity of the continental shelf rather than that of the exclusive economic zone.Pursuant to article 56,paragraph 3 of the UNCLOS,the seabed and subsoil of an exclusive economic zone may be divorced from the superjacent waters,and therefore the entitlement of the coastal State to an exclusive economic zone cannot block the extension of the outer continental shelf of neighboring countries within 200 nautical miles from its baselines.The ICJ considers that there is assumption in the UNCLOS that the outer continental shelf would only extend into maritime areas that would otherwise be located in the International Seabed Area,but some obvious defects exist in the ICJ's interpretation of the UNCLOS.Furthermore,whether the rule of customary international law the ICJ identified satisfies the constitutive elements of international custom is also questionable.Indeed,to use the 200 nautical miles limit of another State as a constraint line of the outer continental shelf would not only change the system of maritime zones established by the UNCLOS,but also be inconsistent with the general rules for delineating the outer limits of the maritime areas under national jurisdiction and for delimiting the boundaries between States.According to the UNCLOS,the continental shelf of a coastal State extends beyond its territorial sea up to the outer limits determined in accordance with Article 76.When the outer continental shelf of one State extends into 200 nautical miles from another State,the issue of overlapping entitlements should be resolved by delimitation.The ICJ tried to eliminate this kind of delimitation of continental shelf,but it caused a difficult problem for the States concerned to establish the maritime boundary between them.