successor state

A successor state is a state that takes over some or all of the territory, assets, treaty obligations and rights from a previously well-established state (the predecessor state). As a term of international law, this concept is discussed under the succession of states theory.In a broader context, successor state is applied where the international law concept would be at best anachronistic; for example in universal history or comparative history. Arnold J. Toynbee used it to describe the fragments of an empire (for him, a universal state), so that it could properly be applied both to the kingdoms set up by the generals of Alexander the Great after he died, and to Belarus as a modern successor state to the USSR. This usage is by now quite common, though not all obviously attributable to Toynbee and followers, and the Russian Federation is usually considered the USSR's successor state partially.
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