「UN해양법협약」중 선박통항규정의 국내법 수용방안

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which deals with the use of oceans, was adopted in 1982 after more than 10 years of long negotiations. As the 60th State deposited its document of ratification, UNCLOS entered into force in 1994. As of July 31, 2008, 156 countries in the world acceded to it. Realizing the ocean's importance to the nation, the Republic of Korea became a Party to the Convention in 1996. In accordance with the Korean Constitution, ratified treaties, even though not incorporated into the Korean Domestic Law, have the same legal effect as the domestic laws do. In reality, UNCLOS is not fully operational in Korea, largely because of insufficient incorporation of it into Korean domestic laws: traffic routes are not designated to foreign ships which enjoy innocent passages in Korean territorial waters; procedures for seizures and hot pursuits of offending foreign vessels are not clearly provided. In this respect, this paper looks into the current status of UNCLOS regulations in Korean domestic laws, more specifically on the passage of ships. After finding unincorporated regulations, the writer proposes amendment to the relevant laws. It is generally agreed that once you amend some part of the law, the relevant law should be amended entirely, including the purpose, the definition, and the penalty of it. However, because of the limitation on the length, this paper deals with only the topics germane to UNCLOS regulations that are missing in Korean laws.