STATE SUCCESSION

International law regulating state succession deals with the situation where there is a change in sovereignty over a particular territory. State succession occurs when a new state or group of states take the  place  of  a  former state  or  group of  states. According to  Akehurst, the  term state succession is  used  to  describe  that  branch  of  international law  which  deals  with  the  legal consequences of a change of sovereignty over territory. When one state acquires territory from another what are the rights and obligations of the predecessor state that pass on to the successor state? What happens to the existing bilateral and multilateral treaties, to the membership of international organizations, to international claims to the nationality of the affected persons, to public and private property, to national archives, to contractual rights and to national debt? This problem is complicated because it can arise in several different forms. A state may lose part of its territory or it may lose all of it. Similarly, the loss of territory may result in enlargement of one or more existing states or may result in creation of one or more new states. These distinctions are vital because different rules of law apply to different types of situations. For instance, the legal effects of creation of new states are different from the enlargement of new states.