Abstract:  “Archipelagic States”, as Part IV of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an innovative regime of midocean archipelagos in the development of international maritime law. However, as a “package deal”, the Convention fails to provide a specific regime governing midocean archipelagos of continental States. At present, several continental States still follow traditional practice: applying straight baselines to their midocean archipelagos, which is against the current framework of the Convention. Moreover, if such practice is to become customary international law, it will undermine the entire system of the Convention. In contrast, if continental States choose to apply the regime of “Archipelagic States” of the Convention analogically to their midocean archipelagos, they will not only achieve the balance of maritime interests between continental States and other States, but also guarantee the authority and integrity of the Convention to the maximum. Therefore, the analogical application of the regime of “Archipelagic States” of the Convention to midocean archipelagos of continental States seems to be a better approach than the current practice of applying straight baselines to midocean archipelagos of continental States.

Key words: Key words： midocean archipelagos, the regime of archipelagic States, archipelagic baselines, archipelagic waters, analogical application ,