대륙붕 한계 확장에 대한 제3국의 소제기 가능성 - 심해저 보호를 위한 actio popularis 제기 가능성을 중심으로 -

The Area, established in the UNCLOS Part XI and its resources are the common heritage of mankind, so no State shall claim or exercise sovereignty or sovereign rights over any part of the Area or its resources. This Area only can be used for the interest of the international community as such. The role of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf(CLCS) is not only to consider the data and other material submitted by coastal States concerning the outer limits of the continental shelf through the members who are experts of the geology,geophysics or hydrography. But also its role is to protect the Area, the common heritage of mankind by examining the submission of the coastal State. If the CLCS can't play its role and the Area is infringed by the illegal extension of the continental shelf, the only way to protect the interest of the international community is to sue against the extension which can be the subject matter of the compulsory procedure of the UNCLOS. In this case, the legal standing can be mattered, because the actio popularis was denied by the ICJ in the South West Africa cases. But after then, international law has developed toward admitting it. International Law Commission(ILC)'s final draft of the state responsibility, the article 48 allows other than an injured state to claim the cessation of the internationally wrongful act. This claim of the cessation can be the request in the form of the adjudication. This has much implication to the Japan's submission which suggests Okinotorishima, as a stand point to claim the extension of its continental shelf. If the CLCS recommends to the submission of a rock like Okinotorishima and a coastal state extends the continental shelf based on this recommendation, a State, on behalf of the international community,can adjudicate to the ITLOS (or other compulsory bodies of the UNCLOS)that this extension is the violation of the Area under the UNCLOS.