Law of Non-Merger of Super-Institutions - A Meta-Governance Principle for Advanced Socio-Technical Systems

Abstract This white paper proposes the Law of Non-Merger of Super-Institutions (LNMSI), a meta-governance principle explaining why full legal or organizational mergers between top-tier institutions—such as elite universities, sovereign states, platform corporations, or frontier AI organizations—systematically fail, even when such mergers appear optimal from an efficiency or innovation perspective. Drawing on historical cases (e.g., university non-mergers), systems theory, political economy, and cognitive governance, LNMSI identifies three non-crossable thresholds: power incompressibility, identity non-fungibility, and systemic external veto. The paper further embeds LNMSI into the CESI–CHX–ORBIT cognitive engineering framework, positioning it as a meta-level governance law that constrains feasible system evolution paths. Rather than advocating consolidation, LNMSI reframes progress as interface-based, modular, and co-evolutionary integration, offering a transferable lens for institutional design in the Cognitive Split Era.