Правовое государство: теория и практика (Sep 2024)
LEGAL CONSOLIDATION OF THE TERRITORIAL CLAIMS OF CHINA AND THE PHILIPPINES IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY: ISSUES OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LAW
Abstract
The South China Sea (SCS) dispute is one of the main sources of security threats for the Asia-Pacific. Due to it being a complex set of intricacies of political and legal factors, legal positions and international legal policy of the disputants require a special analysis. The purpose of this work is to chronologically examine the processes of legal consolidation of the territorial claims of China and the Philippines in the SCS in the second half of the 20th century. We use general scientific methods (dialectical, logical, systemic approach), applying formal logic to analyze the territorial dispute as a complex system, as well as specific scientific and special research methods (historical, formal legal, method of legal hermeneutics), through which we reveal in chronological order the legal positions of the disputants by analyzing national legislation and international legal policy. The research results suggest that Beijing has consistently brought its legislation in accordance with the provisions of key international law of the sea treaties, enshrining in its legal acts its territorial claims to disputed territories in the SCM. However, China ratified the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea without mentioning its historical waters. The Philippines initially argued that the territory of the «Freedomland», that had been «discovered» by T. Kloma, although it coincided with most of the disputed Spratly archipelago, in reality, represented a natural extension of their continental shelf. The Philippine side also argued that after the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, the disputed territories were «terra nullius» because there were no specific provisions as to whose sovereignty they should be transferred to.
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