The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(hereinafter the "UNCLOS" ) which was adopted in 1982, entered into force on November 16th, 1994 and, as a result of this, Japan tried to extend their own maritime zone while other countries had already taken national measures to widen their maritime jurisdiction.
However, unfortunately, Japan wanted to unilaterally take advantage of the UNCLOS without consideration of Korean interests. In particular, Japanese straight baseline systems included in her new territorial water's law which was partly contrary to the UNCLOS, caused a serious impact on the establishment of Korean maritime zones and also resulted in diplomatic friction with Korea in 1997.
And with the above background, Korean fishing boats Daedongho and Manguho were captured on the suspicion of a territorial waters an invasion by Japan. In particular, it was not implemented in accordance with 1965 fishery treaty between Korea and Japan. Also, Japanese supreme court decided an i1 legal adjudgment against Korean fishing boats in the aspect of international law. Consequently, it is expected that this study would analyse the legal constraints of the judgement in the aspects of UNCLOS, state practices, ICJ judgements, international customary law and other international law concerned.
In consideration of this point, the objectives of this paper are to provide an interpretation and application which corresponds with the fundamental purpose of the UNCLOS in order to enable the Korea and Japan, in particular, to effectively settle the disputes which would be caused by the inconsistency of the straight baseline systems.
The second objective is to point out the prominent legal problems of the concerned countries claimed straight baselines, which were adopted as their new territorial water's law.
The final objective is to explore the opportunities for cooperation presented by the UNCLOS.
The straight baseline system of Japan contains a number of discrepancies with the UNCLOS and discrepancies are very 1ikely to cause international dispute, the settlement of which would not be easy.
For the achievement of the above purpose, this study will examine legislative attitudes of the countries concerned and their interest concerning the national laws and on the basis of the UNCLOS and also, to act as a stimulus for the effective settlement of any future disputes on straight baseline in the region.
In conclusion, this study intends to analyse the possibility and procedures about the diplomatic protection through the captured case of korean fishing boats Daedongho and Manguho in 1997 left pendent problem.