中華民國政府繪製南海諸島範圍線之決策過程及其意涵

1947 年中華民國政府在繪製南海諸島範圍線時，繪圖者可能僅是表示線內島嶼都是接收的島嶼，當時中華民國政府是持3海里領海制，不可能將廣大南海海域都納入接收的範圍。隨著國際問對於島嶼和海域觀念的改變，特別是1982年「聯合國海洋法公約」通過後，南海諸島範圍線的法律意義成為各界討論的議題，它是否僅是島嶼歸屬線，或是國境線?抑或是其他意涵的線?本文擬利用當年內政部繪製該範圍線圖時的檔案資料，還原當時繪製該範圍線的本意。

關鍵字

中華民國；南海諸島；南沙群島；西沙群島； U形線

並列摘要

When in 1947 the decision-makers of the government of the Republic of China drew the U-shaped line map of the Islands in the South China Sea, they might have had in mind only to refer it to the islands within the drawn-up line. This was because at that time the ROC probably so held the view that the three nautical miles as being territorial waters, that the officials in charge of the map-making the U-shaped line would not likely have thought of including the whole sea areas in the South China Sea to have fallen within its scope. However, with the development of international law of the Sea, especially since the passage of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the nature of legal status of the If-shaped Line has sparked off heated discussions. It has variously been regarded as something like an islands attribution line, a historic waters line, a historical rights line or a state boundary line. In any rate, this paper has tried to use official archives in its tracing of the original thinking of decision-makers and to infer its due and proper meaning.