8.2 Concept and Theories of State Succession

Definition — the 1978 Vienna Convention (Succession in Respect of Treaties): "the replacement of one State by another in the responsibility for the international relations of territory." The occasions: cession (transfer); annexation; unification (merger); dismemberment (break-up); decolonization (newly independent states); separation. The theories (the doctrinal pair inherited from private law): Universal succession theory (the Grotian lineage, from private inheritance): the successor absorbs all rights and duties — the state's legal personality continuing in the new sovereign (the 19th-century annexation doctrine); Continuity theory / the modern rule of non-succession for general treaties: the default is continuity of territorial obligations — treaties attaching to territory (boundaries, local regimes) continue; political treaties lapse; Clean slate (tabula rasa) theory: the successor starts free of the predecessor's treaty obligations — the VCSST Article 16 option for newly independent states (the decolonization compromise); The functional inventory (the modern method): each category follows its own rules — treaties: devolution vs. renegotiation; property and archives: equitable apportionment; debts: equitable shares subject to the odious-debts debate; nationality: option or automatic grant; membership: successor-state practice.