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How to Build New Countries: The Lawful De Novo Establishment of States on Dry Land Through Long-Term Leasehold and Condominium Arrangements in Public International Law This study examines whether a new sovereign state may be lawfully established de novo on dry land through a negotiated bilateral treaty between an existing recognised state (the Grantor State) and a newly constituted entity (the Startup State). The proposed pathway employs a 999-year sovereign lease of plenary jurisdictional authority, disaggregating dominium (territorial title) from imperium (governmental authority), combined with a transitional condominium governance arrangement providing contracted defence, policing, and judicial administration services. The analysis proceeds through the Montevideo criteria for statehood, the dominium/imperium distinction in public international law, historical precedents for treaty-created states (including the Lateran Treaty, the Singapore Separation Agreement, and the Montenegro independence framework), the declaratory and constitutive theories of recognition, the Stimson Doctrine and collective non-recognition obligations, Vienna Convention treaty durability, Security Council dynamics, and a systematic engagement with sixteen principal objections. A model founding treaty is appended as Annex A. The study draws on the treatise authorities of Crawford, Brownlie, Shaw, Oppenheim, Grant, Talmon, Kohen, Caspersen, Vidmar, and others, and engages with ICJ jurisprudence including the Kosovo Advisory Opinion (2010), the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Project (1997), and the Frontier Dispute (Burkina Faso v Mali, 1986). https://startupstates.swiss/ Keywords: state creation, new states, sovereignty, public international law, Montevideo Convention, statehood criteria, recognition of states, territorial sovereignty, sovereign lease, condominium, dominium and imperium, treaty-created states, international legal personality, terra nullius, tabula rasa, self-determination, Stimson Doctrine, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, UN Charter Article 102, Security Council, startup states, institutional design, governance innovation, de novo statehood, leasehold sovereignty, territorial treaties, international law and state formation.