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).