역사적 만제도와 중국 발해만의 법적 지위에 관한 고찰

Legal Regime of Historic Bays and Legal Status of Bohai Bay

There has been much concern in recent years about the unilateral expansion of national maritime jurisdiction for securing marine resources. Many coastal states have been trying to extend their jurisdiction through the application of legal regime of historic bays to their bays that did not commit the requirements for the existence of legal bay. However, it is not easy to find the definition and the requirements of historic bays because the legal regime of historic bays has been developed in field of customary international law. The 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea just mentioned the norm of historic bays in Paragraph 6, Article 10 which is almost same with Paragraph 6, Article 7 of 1958 Convention on the Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone. In this point, it is necessary for us to analyse the legal regime of historic bays work through the judgements of international courts, state practice and position. Furthermore, China had claimed Bohai bay , the largest bay in China, as an internal waters since 19th century. However, it seems to be not clear why the bay should be regarded as an internal waters. Therefore Korea also has to definite Bohai bay's legal status. In this point of view, first, this article introduces the efforts for codifying historic bays in international law. Secondly, it contemplate to the the requirements for the existence of historic bays which could be find in cases, state practice and scholars arguments. Thirdly, it examines the geographical feature of Bohai bay and China's claims on the bay. Finally, it tries to define the legal status of Bohai bay and suggests some recommendations for the future negotiation of maritime delimitation in Yellow Sea between Korea and China.