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You talk a good game but what rule of law details all that?

Here's Grotius II. 9 VIII. &ff.:

Chapter 9, "In What Cases Jurisdiction and Property Cease." VIII. Whenever two nations become united, their rights, as distinct states, will not be lost, but will be communicated to each other. Thus the rights of the Albans in the first place, and afterwards those of the Sabines, as we are informed by Livy, were transferred to the Romans, and they became one government. The same reasoning holds good respecting states, which are joined, not by a federal UNION, but by having one sovereign for their head. IX. On the other hand, it may happen that a nation, originally forming but one state, may be divided, either by mutual consent, or by the fate of war; as the body of the Persian Empire was divided among the successors of Alexander. When this is the case, many sovereign powers arise in the place of one, each enjoying its independent rights, whatever belonged to the original state, in common, must either continue to be governed as a common concern, or be divided in equitable proportions. To this head may be referred the voluntary separation, which takes place when a nation sends out colonies. For thus a new people as it were is formed, enjoying their own rights; and as Thucydides says, sent out not upon terms of slavery, but equality, yet still owing respect and obedience to their mother-country. The same writer, speaking of the second colony sent by the Corinthians to Epidamnus, says, "they gave public notice that such as were willing to go should enjoy equal privileges with those that staid at home."

Paragraph IX is the one that applies to the case of the departing States. The powers and competencies of the United States Government evaporated in the seceding States, and their portion of sovereignty, and all the powers flowing therefrom, returned to their source, the States that had made the Union, and then unmade it.