国际海底区域勘探开发资格的认定——《联合国海洋法公约》有效控制条款解释及适用

Identification of Qualification for Exploration and Development of International Seabed Areas——Interpretation and Application of the Effective Control Clause of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

《联合国海洋法公约》国际海底区域勘探开发资格条款中“有效控制”的规定语意模糊,国际海底管理局秉持监管控制解释思路,致开发资格标准过于宽松,纵容了“借壳开发”行为。单一监管控制标准混淆国籍与有效控制概念,强化发达国家国际海底区域开发的支配地位,严重违背了人类共同继承财产原则。有效控制条款解释与适用,应借鉴国际法中对资源的实际管控能力与国内法中对经营管理施加影响的经验,引入经济控制要素,在《联合国海洋法公约》框架下,综合运用条约解释方法。构成要件可参考领土主权中的有效控制,分为排他行使控制权意愿的主观要件与存在监管控制和经济控制的实际联系的客观要件。后者判定应采取实质性审查立场,以监管控制为原则,经济控制为例外。其中,经济控制以实际控制人、利润分配流向及申请主体中主要经营管理机构及人事控制机构成员所在国逐步判断。中国正处于深海立法的探索阶段,应充分利用法律解释工具,为深海治理议题贡献中国智慧。

The definition of"effective control"in the qualification clause of the exploration and development of the international seabed area in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(UNCLOS)is vague,and the International Seabed Authority upholds the idea of regulatory control interpretation,which leads to too loose development qualification standards and condoning the behavior of"backdoor development".The single regulatory control standard confuses the concept of nationality and effective control,and strengthens the dominant position of developed countries in the development of international seabed areas,which seriously violates the principle of the common heritage of mankind.The interpretation and application of the effective control clause should learn from the actual management and control ability of resources in international law and the experience of exerting influence on operation and management in domestic law,introduce economic control elements,and comprehensively apply the treaty interpretation method under the framework of UNCLOS.Referring to effective control in territorial sovereignty,the constitutive elements can be divided into subjective elements of exclusive willingness to exercise control and objective elements of the actual connection between regulatorycontrol and economic control,and the actual connection is subject to substantive review position,with regulatory control as the principle as well as economic control as the exception.Among them,the economic control is gradually judged by the actual controller,the flow orientation of profit distribution,and the country where the members of the main management organization and personnel control organization of the applicant are located.China is in the exploratory stage of deep-sea legislation,and should make full use of legal interpretation tools to contribute Chinese wisdom to deep-sea governance issues.