Domicile, a man's legal place of abode, or the place which the law will hold to be his residence. In determining questions of domicile, the law endeavours to follow the facts of each case, and, consequently, the legal as well as the natural view of the matter is expressed in that definition of a domicile in the Corpus Juris, which says 'Every man has his domicile where he has placed his heart, and centred his fortunes and affairs; whence he goes not forth without an occasion; from which, when he is absent, he is said to be abroad; and to which, when he returns, he is said to cease to be abroad.'—Cod. 10, tit. 39, s. 7. Even in Rome, questions of domicile were not without importance, for the empire was divided for purposes of domestic government, and the inhabitant of one province was not subject to the magistrates of another. But it was in modern times, when Europe was divided into many independent kingdoms, and America was formed out of states having different local customs and laws, that the law of domicile assumed its full importance. It now constitutes one of the most difficult branches of private International Law (q.v.). The following are its most general rules: (1) The place of birth is the original domicile of every one, provided that, at the time of his birth, it was the domicile of his parents; but if his parents were then on a visit or on a journey, the home of the parents will be the domicile of birth, nativity, or origin (domicilium originis). (2) If the child is illegitimate, it follows the domicile of its mother. (3) The domicile originally obtained continues till a new one is acquired. (4) Minors are generally deemed incapable of changing their domicile of their own accord, but it may be changed by a change in the domicile of the parents, which it follows. (5) If the father dies, his last domicile is that of his widow and children. (6) A wife follows the domicile of her husband. (7) The place where a man lives, if there be no ground for entertaining an opposite presumption, is his domicile. (8) If a person of full age, having a right to change his domicile, takes up his abode in a new place, with the acknowledged intention of remaining permanently fixed there (animō manendi), that place immediately becomes, and that which he has quitted ceases to be, his domicile. Questions as to what amounts to intention, or what circumstances constitute sufficient proof of intention of remaining, or quitting a place of residence, are amongst the most difficult in the law of domicile. Most persons who are resident abroad have a sort of floating intention that, in certain conceivable circum- stances, they will return to their native country, and to these vague feelings they give expression in a manner more or less vague.
One of the most important effects of the law of domicile, which formerly gave room for litigation, was as to the validity of the will which a deceased person leaves—the English rule being, that it must be according to the law of the domicile, wherever the will was made, though the law of Scotland allowed a will also to be good if it was executed according to the law of the country where it was made. A statute, however, was passed in 1861, by which the law was made uniform, so that the will of a British subject, as regards personal estate, made out of the United Kingdom, is now deemed valid, wherever his domicile may be, if the will is conformable to the law of the country where made, or to the law of the domicile of origin. And by a later statute passed in 1868, it has been provided that even as regards real or heritable estate, an English will is to have effect given to it as regards property situated in Scotland. In each case the presumed intention of the testator will determine by which law the will is to be construed. It is impossible here to enumerate the various other effects of the law of domicile. Generally, it may be stated that it regulates the succession to property. As regards personal or movable property, this is universally conceded. It is said to follow the person (mobilia inherent ossibus). Accordingly, such property is everywhere distributed after death according to the law of the country of which the deceased died a domiciled citizen. In the case of heritable or real property, however, the same rule is not universally applied. By the legal systems of the Continent, domicile as a rule governs the succession, but in Great Britain and the United States, real property descends in accordance with the law of the land in which it is situated (lex rei sitæ). The transmission of a debtor's estate upon divestiture by bankruptcy stands in a similar position to that of succession by death—British and American laws making the same distinction as regards distribution between movable and heritable estate.
Besides domicile proper, of which we have just been treating, the term is sometimes applied in a special and restricted sense. Thus the expression 'Matrimonial Domicile' is occasionally used to express the character of residence supposed to be sufficient to constitute jurisdiction in questions of marriage and divorce. Although the courts have in one or two cases sustained their jurisdiction where the evidence of domicile was slender, it is doubtful how far these cases are authoritative, and the use of the term 'Matrimonial Domicile' has been rather discountenanced by recent authorities (see MARRIAGE). Another common expression is 'Domicile of Citation,' which simply signifies residence for forty days within the territory of a particular court. Such residence is sufficient to constitute jurisdiction for citation of a defender in all personal actions. Under the poor-law statutes, again, the term domicile is often used to describe the kind of residence required for the purposes of parish relief in Scotland (see POOR LAWS; SETTLEMENT, LAW OF). But the rules for determining such residence have little bearing upon questions of domicile proper. See Dicey on Domicile; and notes to the French translation of Dicey by M. Stocquart.