Startup States Society adds legal and economics advisers

The Geneva-based Startup States Society has appointed Mark Beer OBE and Professor Chris Berg as advisers as it expands research on how new countries could be created peacefully and lawfully. The move strengthens the institute’s legal, economic, and technology expertise as it works with founders exploring state-building under public international law.

Why it matters: - The Startup States Society is trying to answer a high-stakes question: how a new country could be formed without conflict and within public international law. - The new advisers add experience in court-building, economics, technology policy, and governance to that effort. - The appointments could help the Society sharpen work on legal, institutional, and economic models for possible future jurisdictions.

What happened: - The Geneva-based Startup States Society announced the appointment of Mark Beer OBE and Professor Chris Berg as advisers. - The announcement came on September 23, 2026. - The institute studies how new countries can be established peacefully and lawfully under public international law. - Julien Andrew Starr, the Society’s Founding Director, said new countries require law, negotiation, territory, institutions, and consent.

The details: - Mark Beer OBE is the former Registrar General of the DIFC Courts in Dubai. - Beer spent two decades building legal institutions, including the DIFC Courts. - He helped grow the DIFC Courts into one of the world’s top three commercial courts within a decade, according to the Society. - Beer also served as Registrar of the Dubai World Tribunal and head of its Dispute Resolution Authority. - He served as President of the International Association for Court Administration. - Beer sits on the International Council of the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan. - Beer negotiated the 2015 enforcement agreement between Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court and the DIFC Courts. - Queen Elizabeth II appointed Beer an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for strengthening legal and trade ties between Britain and the United Arab Emirates. - Professor Chris Berg is an economist at RMIT University in Melbourne. - Berg holds a PhD in economics. - Berg has written more than a dozen books, including Understanding the Blockchain Economy and Artificial Intelligence: A Classical Liberal Approach. - Berg focuses on technology policy and regulation in Australia and internationally. - Berg has advised dozens of frontier technology firms. - Berg sits on the board of Shielded Labs, a nonprofit supporting the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash. - Berg’s current research examines how AI and blockchain may reshape governance. - The Society says its research considers several possible purposes for a new country, including a sanctuary for refugees, a carbon-negative economy, a neutral jurisdiction, and a lifestyle jurisdiction. - The Startup States Society says it does not currently build new countries itself. - The institute says it supports a limited number of founders working within public international law. - The Society says it applies entrepreneurship methods to questions of statecraft. - More information is available at startupstates.swiss. - A plain-language introduction is available at HowToStartANewCountry.com.

Between the lines: - The Society is positioning itself as a research and advisory body, not a direct builder of new states. - Bringing in a former top court executive and an economist signals a focus on both institutional design and economic viability. - The emphasis on consent and lawful process suggests the group wants to frame new-state creation as a legal and negotiated project rather than a separatist one.

What's next: - The Society says the advisers will support its research and advisory work as it develops. - The institute is likely to continue engaging founders, researchers, and governments interested in lawful state formation. - The broader project centers on whether new jurisdictions can be designed and launched without conflict under existing international law.

The bottom line: - The Startup States Society is building a serious advisory bench for an ambitious idea: making new-country creation a legal, negotiated, and peaceful process.