Appraising The Different Principles Of China And Japan In China East Sea Delimitation According To The Latest Maritime Delimitation Cases

Appraising the different principles of China and Japan in China East Sea delimitation according to the latest maritime delimitation cases Abstract: Recently, with the heating of exploration and exploitation in china east sea. The delimitation in China East Sea is becoming a hot topic again . In 2004, China and Japan hold a series of bilateral negotiation on this issue. The main divergence between two courtiers is the different principles to delimitate the china east sea both parties stick to. China insists implementing " Equitable principle " , however , Japan sticks to "Middle line principle" .The divergence on the delimitation principle is a main factor that affects the delimitation process. Then whose principle is right according to international law? There are two major forms of international law: international treaty and international habit. There are two multilateral treaties that craft the rule of maritime delimitation . 1958 continental shelf convention makes combined rule on continental shelf delimitation (Specific conditions + middle line). But because china is not a party to the convention, the treaty can not be applied to china east sea delimitation .The 1982 UN convention on the law of the sea makes a very vague rule because the huge divergence in crafting it and can not serve as the appraise base.So the research analyzes the international habit. International habit was consisted of two factors, material factor and psychological factor. Before this research, many scholars have already researched the rule applied cases delimitated before 1990, so our research makes a simple account of the rules applied before 1990 based on the work of other scholars and emphasize on the rules applied after 1990. We differentiate this treaties to three categories according three stands and study the methods applied in this treaties and the attitudes / history of the relevant parties.By analyzing, we find there are no definite rule of delimitation and no international habit for all countries to observe in maritime delimitation. But there are some obvious trends in delimitation; one of them is that rules applied in the maritime case can be attributed to two principles, which are combined rule and equitable rule. Many ocean powers often implement combined rule to maritime delimitation, to them this rule is the same with equitable rule. The two rules have the trend to gradually become one as time going on and maybe an international habit in maritime delimitation in the future.Depending on the trend applied in maritime delimitation, we analyze the different principles between China and Japan and conclude that the principle of china is reasonable, however, the one of Japan is wrong.