국제해양법재판소의 조기석방 재판관행과 담보금 산정에 관한 연구

Abstract

우리나라는 주요 원양어업국임과 동시에 한-중-일 세 나라와는 국제어업 관계가 복잡하게 얽혀있는 연안국으로서 새로워진 국제어업질서에 적응하는데 어려움을 겪고 있으며, 그 만큼 국제어업분쟁 발생 가능성이 높다고 할 수 있다. 그 중에서도 우리나라 원양어선단이 연안국에 의해 나포되어 벌금을 지불하고 석방되는 경우가 흔히 발생하고 있으며, 우리나라 EEZ에서 불법어업을 행하는 외국선박을 단속하고 처벌하는 건수도 매우 높게 나타나고 있기 때문에 조기석방에 관한 분쟁 발생 가능성이 매우 높다. 따라서 우리나라는 원양어업국으로서 연안국에 의해 나포된 선박과 억류된 선원이 국제법상 정당한 처벌을 받고 보호받아야 할 권리를 행사하기 위하여 필요한 경우에는 ITLOS에 제소하여야만 하는 원고국의 입장이 될 수 있다, 그 뿐만 아니라, 연안국으로서 불법어업혐의 선박을 단속하고 처벌하는 과정에서 충돌이 발생하여 국제재판에 회부될 경우 피소국의 입장이 될 수도 있는 바, 이러한 상황들을 모두 고려하여, 향 후 관련 분쟁 발생에 대한 대비책을 마련할 필요가 있다. 이를 위해서는 UN해양법협약의 조기석방제도에 관한 ITLOS의 재판제도와 사례분석에 관한 연구를 계속할 필요가 있다. 이러한 필요성에 의해 본 연구는 수행되었으며, 그 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 조기석방분쟁에 대한 일련의 ITLOS 판결이 새로운 재판관행을 형성하고 있으며, 이는 조기석방 제도를 규정하고 있거나 관련 분쟁을 해결하는 데 적용되는 UN해양법협약 규정 및 ITLOS 규칙 등 국제법의 미비점을 보완하고 있음을 확인할 수 있었다. 특히, 조기석방분쟁의 핵심이라 할 수 있는 담보금 산정 또는 담보금의 합리성을 평가하는 기준에 대한 UN해양법협약 제292조와 ITLOS 규칙 제113조의 내용은 매우 포괄적이며, 실질적으로 적용할 수 있는 법적 기준을 제시하지 못하고 있다. 따라서 선박과 어획물, 연료, 그밖에 어구·어선설비 등의 가치와 위법행위의 중대성, 그리고 연안국 법률에 따라 부과할 수 있거나 부과된 벌금 혹은 담보금 등, ITLOS가 사건 판결 시 적용하고 있는 담보금 결정 요소가 국제법상 하나의 원칙으로서 확립된 것으로 본다. 둘째, 우리나라는 국내법규에 EEZ에서의 위법행위 유형과 그에 따른 벌금의 상한을 정하고 있지만, 실제로는 현장에서 나포한 선박에 대하여 그러한 법 규정 하에 대검찰청에서 설정한 기준에 따라 담보금을 부과하고 있다. 현재 우리나라의 관련 법규는 주요 연안국들이 자국 국내법에서 규정하고 있는 항목과 유사하며, 그에 따른 벌금의 금액도 비슷한 수준인 것을 확인할 수 있다. 그러나 이는 오직 위반행위의 중대성만을 고려하여 정한 것으로서 ITLOS가 담보금 산정 시 고려하고 있는 여러 요소들을 객관적으로 평가할 수 있는 전문적인 시스템을 지원하고, 담보금을 산정하는 법규를 구체화 할 필요성이 제기된다. 셋째, 조기석방분쟁에 대한 대비와 함께 애초부터 이러한 분쟁 발생의 빌미를 없애기 위한 노력도 필요하다. 이를 위해서는 우리나라와 관련된 원양어업국의 국내법상 규제 내용을 파악하여 원양어선단에 대한 "책임 있는 어업“ 및 해당 연안국의 국내법에서 규정하고 있는 규제사항을 제공하고, 그러한 규정의 준수요령을 교육하는 등 안전조치를 강화할 필요성이 있다.

Since the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), a new international legal regime of the sea has been established, the area which was originally the high sea has been incorporated into national jurisdictions, from which it has become outnumbered to arise the international fisheries disputes such as setting up the fishing areas and the fisheries jurisdiction, and delimiting boundary lines. Among these matters, this study will concentrate on the international law in prompt release of the detained vessels and the crews because the disputes on "prompt release" are regarded as the most arguable issues above any matters of the related field due to the question of the crew's human rights and property rights of vessels. Especially, Korea is one of the major countries in the distant-water fisheries and in the middle of fisheries relationships among the 3 adjacent nations; that is Korea, Japan and China. Moreover, the coastal states of the main fishing areas in where our distant-water vessels have mostly operated such as Russia, Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina have a tendency to reinforce inspections, controls and punishments against the vessels violating coastal states law in their EEZ to protect marine living resources in the area. Therefore, the possibility that vessels are seizure and the crews are detained on charges of illegal fishery and so on has become huge, and this has affected all distant-water fishing nations, not only confined to Korea. This consideration is the reason why such studies understanding trends of international law of the sea and grasping the precedents of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea(ITLOS) are important and required to deal with the situation that such disputes arise and applications for prompt release are presented to the judiciary proceeding of the ITLOS. Especially, the precedents of the ITLOS have much significance as great opportunity that enables to find countermeasures and general positions of both coastal states as defendants and distant-water fishing nations as complainants when they put the case on the international tribunal. This thesis is constructed as following: In Chapter Ⅰ, the purpose, methods and contents of this study are surveyed, and the prior studies in legal basis and judicial precedents for prompt release are discussed as the introduction. In Chapter Ⅱ, the background and the process in forming Article 292 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea(UNCLOS) are explained. The ultimate purpose of Article 292 of the UNCLOS is to protect property rights of detained vessels and human rights of the crews who had been on board the vessels. As the importance and necessity of the goal was revealed during the UNCLOS Ⅲ, there were not many discussions and serious conflict of opinions on the process of establishment for the Article 292. Also, the main contents and the deficiencies of the Article are included. In Article 292, it is stressed that the judiciary proceedings and act of the flag states should be prompt, and the bond or financial security should be deposited as conditions to release the vessels and crews. However, it is indicated that the regulations which impose the bond or other financial securities against the violating vessels in Article 292 should be more detailed. Based on the content of the Article, the ITLOS plays the major role to solve the international disputes, especially the disputes on prompt releases. Therefore, the ITLOS's precedents for prompt release are analyzed and examined in this chapter. In Chapter Ⅲ, the judicial practice of the ITLOS in general issues of prompt release is arranged. This judicial practice contains significant implications because it is emerged by means of the judgments which was declared by the ITLOS and composed of the 9 cases settled after establishment of the ITLOS in 1997. Hence, it has supplemented the insufficiencies found in the provisions of the UNCLOS and the Regulations of the ITLOS. The main items of the judicial practice are organized as; the basis of the ITLOS's jurisdiction to deal with an application, the elements required to be satisfied for admissibility of the applications, and standards of reasonable bond or other financial securities. In Chapter Ⅳ, the precedents of the ITLOS and the regulations of major coastal states that are related to the bond or other financial securities are analyzed and examined. The core problems of the disputes on prompt release are evaluating the reasonableness of a bond or standards and range for setting a bond to releases detained vessels and the crews, and one of the standards applied in the first place when the ITLOS sets the bond or other financial securities is gravity of offences. In other words, the tribunal considers how much penalty has been decided before the domestic court or imposed by the domestic law when the tribunal determines the reasonableness of the bond to be posted for releases of the vessels and the crews. With the outcomes, present regulations of Korea are evaluated in order to derive the best countermeasures enabling the government to protect the national interests when we go on to trial in the capacity of both a complainant and a defendant. Now, the law and enforcement rules restricting illegal fishery in the EEZ against foreign vessels are established in Korea. Comparing with the present conditions of the Korean regulations and the general trends of the law of major coastal states, it is confirmed that the law and enforcement rules have been strengthened as much as the levels of other coastal states. Lastly, In Chapter Ⅴ, the overall outcomes of the study are summarized, and the conclusion is derived. As a main part of the conclusion, the requirements that we should take to prepare the disputes on prompt releases are discussed.