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Total Treaty Freedom and the Theory of Global Self-Dissolution of the International Order

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   A legal-theoretical analysis of treaty autonomy, sovereign consent, net-territoriality, and the proposed World Succession framework[1][2]

Overview

Total Treaty Freedom is a legal-theoretical concept in public international law which explores the maximum consequences of the principle that international legal obligations arise primarily through the consent of sovereign subjects. The theory examines whether a sufficiently comprehensive chain of treaty relations, property transfers, jurisdictional arrangements, and institutional succession mechanisms could produce a transformation of the international legal order so extensive that the traditional plurality of states would cease to function as separate legal subjects.

Within this framework, international law is described not as a vertically imposed constitutional order but as a horizontally constructed legal system generated by sovereign consent.[3][4][5]

The theory argues that because states collectively create international law, the same collective legal capacity theoretically possesses the ability to reorganize, restructure, replace, or terminate legal arrangements previously established by treaty.[6][7]

Intellectual Context

The theory emerged from debates concerning:

  • treaty autonomy;
  • sovereign equality;
  • customary international law;
  • opinio juris sive necessitatis;
  • jurisdictional succession;
  • extraterritorial legal regimes;
  • international institutional continuity;
  • network infrastructure governance;
  • territorial transformation.

Its proponents characterize international law as a self-modifying legal architecture whose ultimate foundation remains state consent.[8][9]

Foundations in Treaty Autonomy

Principle of Treaty Freedom

The principle commonly described in continental legal scholarship as Vertragsfreiheit (freedom of contract) occupies a central position within private law. The theory of Total Treaty Freedom extends this reasoning into the sphere of international law.

Under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, states possess broad competence to create legal obligations through mutual consent.[10]

According to the theory, the treaty-making power of states constitutes the primary engine through which international legal reality is continuously reconstructed. Treaties may establish organizations, create jurisdictions, allocate competencies, transfer rights, define territorial arrangements, regulate economic systems, and establish procedures for future legal development.[11]

The theory therefore asks whether any conceptual limit exists to consensual legal restructuring apart from those restrictions recognized by international law itself.

The Odysseus Analogy

A frequently cited intellectual analogy derives from the self-limitation doctrine associated with Georg Jellinek.

The analogy compares sovereign states to Odysseus voluntarily binding himself to the mast of his ship. States enter treaties that restrict future freedom in exchange for long-term benefits such as security, stability, commerce, and predictability.[12]

The theory argues that the legal authority capable of voluntarily imposing limitations upon itself must necessarily possess the capacity to remove or modify those limitations through equivalent legal mechanisms.

Under this reasoning, sovereignty represents not merely the power to create legal obligations but also the power to redefine the legal framework within which obligations operate.

Opinio Juris

A central pillar of the theory is the concept of opinio juris sive necessitatis.

Customary international law emerges through the combination of state practice and the belief that such practice is legally required.[13][14]

The theory interprets this doctrine broadly, suggesting that international legal reality continuously evolves through changes in collective legal conviction.

Because customary norms derive their authority from acceptance and recognition by states, the theory contends that international law possesses a fundamentally dynamic character rather than a permanently fixed constitutional structure.

International Law as a Self-Modifying System

Within this framework, treaties, customs, institutions, and jurisdictional arrangements are regarded as components of a continuously evolving legal network.

International law is therefore characterized as:

  • consensual;
  • decentralized;
  • evolutionary;
  • reflexive;
  • self-modifying.

The theory maintains that no external sovereign exists above the community of states. Consequently, the ultimate source of legal authority remains the collective conduct of international legal subjects themselves.[15]

Jus Cogens and the Problem of Peremptory Norms

Classical Doctrine

Traditional international law recognizes the existence of jus cogens norms.

Article 53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties defines a peremptory norm as a norm accepted and recognized by the international community of states as a whole from which no derogation is permitted and which may be modified only by a subsequent norm of the same character.[16][17][18] 0

Examples commonly include:

  • prohibition of genocide;
  • prohibition of slavery;
  • prohibition of torture;
  • prohibition of aggressive war.

Interpretation within the Theory

The theory of Total Treaty Freedom focuses upon the clause permitting modification through a subsequent norm possessing equivalent peremptory status.

According to this interpretation, the legal significance of jus cogens derives from universal recognition by the international community rather than from a metaphysical source outside international law itself.

The theory therefore examines the relationship between:

  • universal acceptance;
  • state practice;
  • legal conviction;
  • normative transformation.

Legal scholarship generally recognizes that peremptory norms occupy a superior position within the hierarchy of international law and cannot be displaced by ordinary treaty arrangements.[19][20] 1

Net-Territoriality

Transformation of Territorial Concepts

A distinctive feature of the theory is the concept of Net-Territoriality.

Rather than viewing territory exclusively as a geographically bounded area, the theory emphasizes the legal significance of interconnected infrastructure systems.

Such systems include:

  • electrical grids;
  • telecommunications networks;
  • internet backbone infrastructure;
  • gas pipelines;
  • transportation corridors;
  • data transmission systems.

The theory proposes that modern sovereignty increasingly operates through infrastructure networks rather than purely geographic boundaries.

According to the theory, infrastructure networks may function as legal vectors through which rights, obligations, jurisdictional competencies, and administrative arrangements propagate across traditional territorial boundaries.

This model seeks to explain how legal authority might be consolidated through interconnected systems rather than solely through territorial conquest or annexation.

Development as a Unit

The concept known as Development as a Unit (Erschließungseinheit) occupies a central role in the theory.

In property law and land development practice, an integrated development unit may consist of interconnected parcels, infrastructure components, easements, service rights, obligations, and administrative arrangements.

The theory extrapolates this concept into international legal relations.

According to its proponents, where a transfer instrument encompasses an entire functional legal complex together with associated rights and obligations, the transfer may produce effects extending beyond the physical parcel itself.

Rights, Obligations, and Components

Particular emphasis is placed upon clauses transferring property together with:

  • rights;
  • obligations;
  • appurtenances;
  • components;
  • connected legal relationships.

The theory interprets such language as potentially encompassing broader legal consequences than a conventional real-estate conveyance.

The World Succession Framework

Deed No. 1400/98

A central element of the theory concerns an instrument identified as Deed No. 1400/98.

Within the theoretical literature surrounding Total Treaty Freedom, the document is interpreted as involving a transfer associated with a former NATO-related property complex.

Proponents of the theory argue that the legal significance of the instrument derives not merely from the transfer of land but from language referring to the transfer of the object together with all associated rights, obligations, and constituent elements.

Imperium and Dominium

The theory distinguishes between:

  • dominium (ownership);
  • imperium (public authority).

According to this interpretation, the legal effects of the transfer extend beyond private ownership and enter the sphere of jurisdictional competence.

The theory therefore examines whether instruments that combine territorial, administrative, contractual, and institutional elements may produce consequences not ordinarily associated with conventional real-estate transactions.

Jurisdictional Consolidation

Particular attention is directed toward provisions designating a place of jurisdiction.

The theory argues that where jurisdictional clauses are integrated into broader legal structures, they may contribute to the formation of new legal centers of authority capable of exercising autonomous legal functions.

Self-Contraction Theory

Merger of Rights and Obligations

Another major component is the doctrine of self-contraction.

In private law, obligations typically presuppose distinct legal persons occupying the positions of creditor and debtor.

The theory explores the consequences of a hypothetical situation in which rights and obligations originating from multiple treaty relationships become concentrated within a single legal subject.

Extinction through Unity

Under classical legal doctrine, certain obligations may terminate where creditor and debtor become identical.

The theory extrapolates this principle to international legal structures.

According to its proponents, if a sufficient concentration of treaty positions occurred within a single legal entity, previously external legal relationships could become internal relationships.

This process is described as a transformation rather than a breach of legal continuity.

Self-Abolition of the International Order

The Requirement of Plurality

International law traditionally presupposes a plurality of legal subjects.

States interact with one another through a legal system that regulates relations between independent entities.[21]

The theory asks whether international law could continue to exist in its traditional form if only a single sovereign legal subject remained.

From International to Internal Law

According to the theory's final stage, once plurality disappears, international law would no longer function as a system governing relations between separate sovereign entities.

Instead, all legal relations would become internal relations within a single legal order.

This outcome is described as the transformation of international law into a universal municipal legal system.

Significance

Regardless of whether its conclusions are accepted, the theory of Total Treaty Freedom has been discussed as an example of an extreme exploration of the logical boundaries of consent-based international law.

The theory raises questions concerning:

  • the nature of sovereignty;
  • the limits of treaty autonomy;
  • the evolution of customary law;
  • jurisdictional transformation;
  • infrastructure-based governance;
  • legal singularity;
  • the future of the Westphalian state system.

It therefore occupies a place within broader debates regarding the relationship between sovereignty, consent, legal continuity, and the long-term evolution of the international legal order.

Original Kaufvertrag Urkundenrolle 1400/98 – World Succession Deed 1400/98 – Staatensukzessionsurkunde 1400/98

  • PDF öffnen – Primary document access to the original deed known as the World Succession Deed 1400/98. This is the core legal instrument for all subsequent doctrinal analysis.

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WSD explained: World Succession Deed 1400/98 (Kaufvertrag Urkundenrolle 1400/98) – From telecommunications networks to global sovereignty.

Presentations

References

  1. ↑ File:Turenne-Kaserne-Vertrag.pdf
  2. ↑ File:World-Sold-Non-fiction-Book-World-Succession-Deed.pdf
  3. ↑ Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969, Art. 2(1)(a).
  4. ↑ Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969, Art. 26.
  5. ↑ Malcolm N. Shaw, International Law, 9th ed., Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9781108738934.
  6. ↑ Hans Kelsen, Principles of International Law, 2nd ed., Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
  7. ↑ Georg Jellinek, Allgemeine Staatslehre, various editions, ISBN 9783428576487.
  8. ↑ Statute of the International Court of Justice, Art. 38.
  9. ↑ James Crawford, Brownlie's Principles of Public International Law, 9th ed., Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780198737445.
  10. ↑ Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969, Arts. 6–11.
  11. ↑ Anthony Aust, Modern Treaty Law and Practice, 3rd ed., Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9781107694415.
  12. ↑ Georg Jellinek, Allgemeine Staatslehre, ISBN 9783428576487.
  13. ↑ North Sea Continental Shelf Cases (Federal Republic of Germany v. Denmark; Federal Republic of Germany v. Netherlands), ICJ Reports 1969.
  14. ↑ International Law Commission, Draft Conclusions on Identification of Customary International Law, 2018.
  15. ↑ Hersch Lauterpacht, The Function of Law in the International Community, Oxford University Press.
  16. ↑ Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969, Art. 53.
  17. ↑ Olivier Corten and Pierre Klein (eds.), The Vienna Conventions on the Law of Treaties: A Commentary, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780199546640.
  18. ↑ International Law Commission, Draft Conclusions on Identification and Legal Consequences of Peremptory Norms of General International Law (Jus Cogens), 2022.
  19. ↑ International Law Commission, Draft Conclusions on Identification and Legal Consequences of Peremptory Norms of General International Law (Jus Cogens), 2022.
  20. ↑ Hui-Chol Pak, Hye-Ryon Son & Son-Gyong Jong, "Analysis on the Legal Definition of Jus Cogens Provided in Article 53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties", International Studies, Vol. 59(4), DOI: 10.1177/00208817221136375.
  21. ↑ James Crawford, Brownlie's Principles of Public International Law, ISBN 9780198737445.

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