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Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law [MPEPIL]

Cession

Oliver Dörr

Content type:
Encyclopedia entries
Product:
Max Planck Encyclopedias of International Law [MPIL]

Module:
Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law [MPEPIL]
Article last updated:
August 2019

From: Oxford Public International Law (http://opil.ouplaw.com). (c) Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved.date: 09 December 2024

Subject(s):
Secession — Customary international law — State succession, international agreements — Unilateral acts — Jurisdiction of states, nationality principle — State succession, state property and contracts — Territory, acquisition and transfer

Published under the auspices of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law under the direction of Professor Anne Peters (2021–) and Professor Rüdiger Wolfrum (2004–2020). 

1 Cession is an understanding under international law by which territory is transferred from one State to another with the consent of both States. It is one of the modes by which States can lawfully acquire territory (Territory, Acquisition), and since it is based on mutual consent, it is presumably today the mode having the greatest practical relevance. As it necessarily entails a change of territory, cession entails a case of State succession, ie of the replacement of one State by another in the responsibility for the international relations of the territory...
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