State Succession
Chapter Twenty-Four
Syllabus topic none names it. It is covered under house rule 1.3 as the direct consequence of the topic MU does print: 2.1, territory changing hands. A syllabus that asks about the acquisition and loss of territory and stops before asking what happens to the treaties, debts and obligations attached to it has taught half a rule.
Pages 156 to 161 of 612
In one line
When territory changes hands, somebody has to answer for the treaties, the debts, the property and the wrongs attached to it, and State succession is the set of rules about who.
In the wording a student can write in an exam: State succession arises where one State replaces another in the responsibility for the international relations of territory. It is universal where the predecessor ceases to exist, as on merger or dissolution, and partial where only part of the territory is affected, as on cession or secession. Whether the successor inherits the predecessor's treaties, debts, property and responsibility depends on the category of the change and on the kind of obligation, and the rules are less settled than any other part of this module.
Two vocabulary points first
Succession of States is not succession of governments. A change of government leaves the State the same legal person, so its treaties and debts continue untouched; that is the continuity principle in [Recognition of Governments]. Succession of States arises only where the identity of the State holding the territory changes.
Continuity is the opposite of succession. Where a State continues in existence despite losing territory, there is no succession as to that State: it keeps its own treaties and obligations, and only the departing territory raises questions. Whether an entity is a continuator or a successor is the first question in any real case, and it is decided by the practice of other States rather than by a rule.
The situations in which it arises
Cession, where part of one State's territory passes to another. The predecessor survives; the question is what travels with the land.
Secession, where part of a State breaks away to form a new one. The predecessor generally continues as the same State, and the new State is a successor.
Decolonisation, historically the largest category, where a dependent territory becomes independent.
Merger or union, where two or more States join to form one. The constituents cease to exist.
Dissolution, where a State breaks up entirely and none of the resulting States is treated as the continuator.
Annexation, historically, where one State absorbed another. No longer available, since acquisition by force is unlawful.
What happens to treaties
This is the largest question and the most contested.
Three competing theories.
Universal succession, the oldest, borrowed from Roman inheritance: the successor takes everything, rights and duties alike. It is now rejected as a general rule.
The clean slate doctrine, or tabula rasa: the new State starts free of the predecessor's treaty obligations. It was pressed by newly independent States after 1945 and is the general rule for newly independent States.
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