State Succession to Multilateral Investment Treaties and the ICSID Convention

Abstract

This article examines the following question: is a new successor State automatically bound by the multilateral treaties on investment promotion and protection to which the predecessor State was a party at the date of succession? The article critically assesses the continuity principle that was adopted under the 1978 Vienna Convention on succession to treaties in the context of the dissolution of a State and secession. It also examines the question of succession to the ICSID Convention, an example of a special category of multilateral treaties which create international organisations. It will be shown that there is no succession to the membership of an international organisation and that, accordingly, the practice of new States has been to adhere to the Center via a formal application (rather than by way of succession).