DOMICIL - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

DOMICILAuthored

The Law Mind • 1374 words

Definition

The place a person treats as their permanent home — the fixed location to which, whenever absent, they intend to return. It is the law's answer to the question: where does this person legally belong?

Domicil (now more commonly spelled domicile) operates as a legal status, not merely a factual description of where someone sleeps. A person can have many residences but only one domicil at any given time. That single domicil governs a wide range of legal consequences: which state's law applies to inheritance of personal property, which court has jurisdiction over divorce, which taxing authority may claim a person as a resident, and which sovereign can make certain demands on an individual.

Three elements are conventionally required: (1) physical presence in a place, (2) intention to remain there permanently or indefinitely, and (3) the absence of any present intention to leave for good. The third is implicit in the second but emphasized in contested cases — a person who is present and has no formed intention to leave is generally held to have acquired domicil, even without a conscious declaration of permanence.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Listed as an archaic form of domicile. In current ordinary English, domicile most commonly refers simply to a dwelling or place of residence, without legal weight.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A house; a dwelling place; a home.

The gap matters in research. The lay meaning is purely descriptive — where you live. The legal meaning is normative — where the law says you belong, regardless of where you actually are living at any moment. A person can be physically residing in one state for years and still be legally domiciled in another, if their intention to return to the original location remains intact. Researchers encountering the term in historical legal sources should resist the instinct to read it as a synonym for residence or address.

Common Confusion

Domicil is frequently conflated with residence and with citizenship. These are distinct concepts. Residence is physical presence in a place, which may be temporary and which a person can have in multiple locations simultaneously. Citizenship is a political status conferred by birth, naturalization, or treaty. Domicil sits between them: it requires some physical presence (unlike citizenship, which can persist without it) but adds a subjective element of intent that mere residence does not require.

In older cases and statutes, the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, which creates interpretive problems. When reading historical sources, verify whether the author uses residence as a near-synonym for domicil or as a genuinely distinct concept.

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Domicil of origin: The domicil assigned at birth, derived from the father's domicil (under the common law rule) or, for illegitimate children, the mother's. It functions as a default that revives if a person abandons a later domicil without acquiring a new one.

Domicil of choice: A domicil acquired by an adult who voluntarily takes up residence in a new place with the intention of remaining there permanently or indefinitely. This is the primary form contested in litigation.

Domicil by operation of law: Applies to persons whose domicil is legally assigned rather than chosen — historically, married women (assigned the husband's domicil), minor children (assigned the father's, or custodial parent's, domicil), and those under guardianship.

Commercial domicil: A doctrine arising primarily in the law of war and international commerce. A merchant or trading entity may acquire a commercial domicil in a foreign country by maintaining a commercial establishment there, even without intending to make that country a permanent personal home. This form of domicil affects questions of enemy character in wartime and the jurisdiction of commercial tribunals.

Why It Matters in Research

Spelling is the first research trap. Domicil (one l) was the dominant American legal spelling through the nineteenth century. Domicile (with terminal e) increasingly supplanted it in the twentieth century, but historical sources — statutes, cases, treatises — use the older spelling, and full-text searches that do not account for both variants will miss relevant material. Bouvier's uses domicil throughout; modern codes and reporters generally use domicile.

The concept's legal consequences shifted significantly across eras. In the nineteenth century, domicil was the organizing principle for conflict-of-laws analysis: which state's law governed the distribution of a decedent's personal property, whether a marriage or divorce was valid across borders, and whether a court had power to adjudicate a status relationship. Researchers working on nineteenth-century conflicts cases will encounter domicil as a load-bearing term in the analysis, not a peripheral fact.

In family law, the connection between domicil and divorce jurisdiction is critical. Historically, at least one party to a divorce had to be domiciled in the forum state for that court to have subject-matter jurisdiction over the marital status. This rule generated substantial litigation over the recognition of foreign and sister-state divorces, particularly in the mid-twentieth century. The Law Mind Family Law Encyclopedia entry on divisible divorce traces this line of authority directly.

For insurance and corporate research, domicil (or domicile) takes on a regulatory meaning: the state in which an insurer is incorporated or licensed as its home jurisdiction, which determines which state's insurance code primarily governs it. This is a distinct, statutory usage that borrows the term from private law but applies it to entities rather than natural persons.

In corpus research, be alert to context. The same word appearing in a probate case, a divorce proceeding, a wartime prize case, and an insurance regulatory filing carries related but not identical meanings. The core concept — a single legally significant home jurisdiction — is stable; the consequences and the tests applied vary considerably by legal context.

Historical Dictionary Support

Bouvier's Law Dictionary provides the standard formulation that dominated American legal usage for most of the nineteenth century: domicil is the place where a person has their true, fixed, and permanent home, with the intention of returning whenever absent. Bouvier's treatment is extensive and organized around the major subtypes — domicil of origin, domicil of choice, domicil by operation of law, and commercial domicil — with citations to cases from multiple states and federal courts.

Bouvier's entry on commercial domicil reflects the international law dimensions of the concept, particularly its wartime applications, drawing on Kent's Commentaries and early Supreme Court decisions arising from prize litigation. This is a dimension of domicil that later general dictionaries largely drop, but which is essential for researchers working in nineteenth-century maritime, conflict-of-laws, or international law materials.

Anderson's Dictionary of Law, as represented in the available source material, does not contribute substantively to the domicil entry in the excerpts provided. Researchers relying on Anderson's for this term should treat Bouvier's as the primary historical dictionary source.

One limitation of both dictionaries: they reflect the common law rule that a married woman took her husband's domicil as a matter of law, without independent legal capacity to establish her own. This rule was substantially modified or abolished across American jurisdictions through the twentieth century. Historical dictionary definitions of domicil should not be imported uncritically into modern analysis, particularly in family law or succession contexts involving women.

Jurisdictional Note

American states follow broadly similar principles for domicil analysis but vary in how they resolve hard cases — particularly the domicil of minors after divorce, the effect of guardianship orders on a ward's domicil, and the intent standard required to effect a change of domicil. International research adds further complexity: civil law jurisdictions use analogous but not identical concepts (notably the French domicile légal), and choice-of-law treaties may define domicil by their own terms rather than by any domestic standard.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Divorce — Subject Matter Jurisdiction (Domicile, Status, and Divisible Divorce) (The Law Mind Family Law Encyclopedia)
Captive Insurance — Formation, Domicile Selection, and Regulatory Requirements (The Law Mind Insurance Law Encyclopedia)

DOMICILmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

That place where a man has his true, fixed, and permanent home and principal establishment, and to which whenever he is absent he has the intention of returning. 10 Mass. 188; 11 La. 175; 5 Metc. 187: 4 Barb. 505: Wall. Jr. 217;9 Ired. 99; 1 Tex. 673; 13 Me. 255; 27 Miss. 704; 1 Bosw. 673; 74 III. 312. The domicil of a person is that place or country in which his habitation is fixed, without any present intention of removing therefrom; [1892] 3 Ch. 180. Dicey defines domicil as, in general, the place or country which is in fact his perma- nent home, but is in some cases the place or country which, whether it be in fact his home or not, is determined to be his home by a rule of law; Dicey, Dom. 42; and again as "that place or country either (1) in which he in fact resides with the intention of resi- dence (animus manendi); or (2) in which, having so resided, be continues actually to reside, though no longer retaining the in- tention of residence (animus manendi); or (3) with regard to which, having so resided there, he retains the intention of residence (animus manendi), though he, in fact, no longer resides there:" id. 44. The same definition substantially is given in Dicey, Confi. Laws (Moore's ed.) 727. It is there said not to include cases of domicil created by operation of law. Other definitions are quoted in the same words with modification: Domicil is "a habitation fixed in some place with the intention of remaining there alway." Vattel, Droit des Gens, liv. i, c. xix, 8. 218, Du Domicile. "The place where a person has established the principal seat of his residence and of his business." Pothier, Introd. Gen. Cout. d'Orleans, ch. 1, 8. 1, art. 8. "That place is to be regarded as a man's domicil which he has freely chosen for his permanent abode [and thus for the centre at once of his legal relations and his busi- ness]." Savigny, s. 353. "That place is properly the domicil of a person in which his habitation is fixed, without any present intention of removing therefrom." "Story, Confl. Laws § 43. "A residence at a particular place, ac- companied with [positive or presumptive proof of] an intention to remain there for an unlimited time." Phillimore, Int. Law 49. "That place is properly the domicil of a person in which he has voluntarily fixed the habitation of himself and his family, not for a mere special and temporary pur- pose, but with a present intention of mak- ing it his permanent home, unless and un- til something (which is unexpected or un- certain) shall occur to induce him to adopt some other permanent home." 28 L. J. Ch. 361. 366, Der Kinderslev. V. C. One's domicil is the technically preeminent headquarters that every person is compelled to have in order that his rights and duties that have attached to it by the law may be determined. 232 U. S. 619. If the intention of permanently residing in a place exists, a residence in pursuance of that intention however short, will establish a domicil. L. R. 1 Sc. App. 307, 319, cited by Taylor, Int. Pub. Law 249. It has been said that there is no precise definition of the word; 25 L. J. Ch. 730; but Dicey (Domicil, App. and in his Confl. Laws 731) dissents from this statement. In the latter work the learned writer says that "the attempts which have been made to define domicil, and of the criticisms upon such attempts, lead to results which may be summed up as follows:- "First. Domicil, being a complex term, must. from the nature of things, be capable of definition. In other words, it is a term which has a meaning, and that meaning can be explained by analyzing it into its elements. "Secondly. All the best definitions agree in making the elements of domicil 'resi- dence' and 'animus manendi.' "Thirdly. Several of these definitions- such, for example, as Story's, Phillimore's, or Vice-Chancellor Kindersley's-have suc- ceeded in giving an explanation of the meaning of domicil, which, even if not ex- pressed in the most precise language, is substantially accurate. "Fourthly. The reason why English courts have been inclined to hold that no definition of domicil is satisfactory is, that they have found it impossible to reconcile any definition with three sets of judicial decisions or dicta (an officer in the service of the East India Company; an Englishman acquiring a domicil in another country; and a person residing in another country for his health). When, however, these sets are examined, it is found that two of them consist of cases embodying views of domicil now admitted to be erroneous, whilst the third set can be reconciled with all the best definitions of domicil." Dicey, Confl. Laws 735. A person must have a domicil for pur- poses of taxation; 1 Metc. 242; 132 Mass. 89; 42 Wis. 476; 49 Me. 367; for jurisdiction; 65 N. H. 248; for succession; 52 Me. 165; 76 Ala. 433; 53 N. Y. 556; for administration; 85 Pa. 466; for pauper settlement; 23 Pick. 177; for loyal character: 93 U. S. 605; for home- stead exemption; 20 Tex. 243; for attach- ment; 54 Miss.

DOMICILmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

Ala. 439. It may be otherwise in case of a life sentence; Whart. Confi. Law §54. Commercial domicil. There may be a commercial domicil acquired by mainte- nance of a commercial establishment in a country, in relation to transactions con- nected with such establishments; 1 Kent 82; 144 U. S. 47; 52 Fed. Rep. 203. See Dicey, Dom. 841; 2 Wheat. 76. This is such a residence in a country for purposes of trade as makes a person's trade or business contribute to or form part of the resources of such country. The question is whether he is or is not residing in such country with the purpose of con- tinuing to trade there; Dicey, Confil. Laws 787. The intention of remaining in the commercial domicil is the intention to con- tinue to reside and trade there for the pres- ent; id. 738. Commercial domicil is not forfeited by temporary absence at the domi- cil of origin; 144 U. S. 63; but if a person go into a foreign country and engage in trade there, he is, by the law of nations, to be considered a merchant of that country, and subject for all civil purposes, whether that country be hostile or neutral; 8 B. & P. 113; 3 C. Rob. 12; 1 Hagg. 103, 104; 1 Pet. C. C. 159; 2°Cra. 64; and this whether the effect be to render him hostile or neutral in respect to his bona fide trade; 1 Kent 75; 3 Β. & P. 113; 1 C. Rob. 249. Corporations. If the term domicil can apply to corporations, they have their domi- cil wherever they are created; L. R. 1 Ex. 428; 5 H. L. 416; 40 Mo. 580. See 147 III. 234; but a permanent foreign agency of an insurance company may create an inde- pendent domicil in the place of the agency, for the purpose of enforcing legal obliga- tion; 53 N. Y. 339. See 1 Black 256. If a railroad performs its functions within a state under a charter granted by the legis- lature, the fact that earlier charters were granted in other states does not render the corporation any the less a resident of the state granting the latest charter; 91 Tenn. 395; an insurance company organized un- der the laws of one state, but which ap- points an agent in another state on whom service of process can be made, does not change the domicil of the corporation; 138 N. Y. 209. See also 107 U. S. 581; 188 N. Y. 209; 158 Mass. 461. Change of domicil. Any person, sui juris, may make any bona fide change of domicil at any time; 5 Madd. 379; 5 Pick. 370; 85 E. L. & Eq. 532. And the object of the change does not affect the right, if it be a genuine change with real intention of per- manent residence; 3 Wash. C. C. 546; 5 Mas. 70; 1 Paine 594; 3 Sumn. 251; 85 Ala. 439. Domicil is not lost by going to an- other state to seek a home, but continues until the home is obtained; 12 Pa. Co. Ct. R. 255. Legitimate children follow the domi- cil of the father, if the change be made bona fide; 2 Salk. 528; 2 Bro. Ch. 500; 16 Mass. 52; Ware 464; 27 Mo. 280; L. R. 1 P. & D. 611; 67 N. Y. 879; 45 Ia. 49;49 Fed. Rep. 257; 23 L. J. Ch. 724; 67 Ala. 304; 23 Ind. 43; illegitimate children, that of the mother; 37 L. J. Ch. 724; Dicey, Dom. 97; 35 Me. 411; 8 Cush. 75; but there are limitations to the power to change a minor child's domicil in the case of alien parents; 10 Ves. 52; 5 East 221; 8 Paige, Ch. 47; 2 Kent 226; and of the mother, if a widow; Burge 38: 30 Ala. N. S. 613; see 2 Bradf. Surr. 214; 45 Mo. App. 415; how- ever, if she acquires a new domicil by remarriage, the child's domicil does not change; 40 N. Y. Sup. Ct. 347; 2 Bradf. Surr. 414; 8 Cush. 528; 11 Humphr. 536. See [1893] 3 Ch. 490; 112 U. S. 452; 35 Ala. 521. If a father abandons his children, who are cared for and live with their grandmother for several years, and he subsequently re- moves them against her will, the residence of the children is not changed; 92 Cal. 195; 49 Fed. Rep. 257. The guardian is said to have the same power over his ward that a parent has over his child; 5 Pick. 20; 33 Tex. 512; 8 Ohio 227; 1 Binn. 349, n.; 2 Kent 237. But see contra, 8 Blackf. 345. The point is not set- tled in England; Dicey, Dom. 133. See 3 Mer. 67; 9 W. N. C. Pa. 564. "It has been

DOMICILmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

generally held that a guardian can change the ward's domicil from one county to an- other in the same state; 42 Vt. 350; L. R. 5 Q. B. 325. It is doubtful, to say the least, whether the guardian can remove the ward's domicil out of the state in which he was appointed; L. R. 12 Eq. 617; 52 Ala. 430. A guardian appointed in a state where the ward is temporarily residing cannot change the ward's domicil from one state to another;" 112 U, S. 452. But see 87 Tenn. 644. The mere appointment of a guardian will not prevent the ward from changing his domicil where he has suffi- cient mental capacity to do so; 17 R. I. 480; 149 Mass. 57. It may be considered questionable whether the guardian can change the national domicil of his ward; 2 Kent 226; Story, Confl. Laws § 506. The domicil of a lunatic may be changed by the direction or with the assent of his guardian; 5 Pick. 20; 42 Vt. 350; contra, 53 Me. 442. See L. R. 1 P. & M. 611; 3 Ves. Jr. 198; 9 W. R. 764. The husband may not change his domicil after committing an offence which entitles the wife to a divorce, so as to deprive her of her remedy; 14 Pick. 181; 2 Tex. 261. And it is said the wife may not in the like case acquire a new domicil; 10 N. H. 61; 9 Me. 140; 17 Conn. 284; 5 Yerg. 203; 2 Mass. 153; 2 Litt. 837; 2 Blackf. 407. Until a new domicil is gained, the old one remains; 93 U. S. 605; 55 Me. 117. See DIVORCE. The law of the place of domicil governs as to all acts of the parties, when not con- trolled by the lex loci contractus or lex rei site. Personal property of the woman follows the law of the domicil upon mar- riage. It passes to the husband, if at all, in such cases as a legal assignment by opera- tion of the law of domicil, but one which is recognized extra-territorially; 2 Rose 97; 20 Johns. 267; Story, Confl. Laws § 423. The state and condition of the person ac- cording to the law of his domicil will gen- erally, though not universally, be regarded in other countries as to acts done, rights acquired, or contracts made in the place of his native domicil; but as to acts, rights, and contracts done, acquired, or made out of his native domicil, the lex loci will gen- erally govern in respect to his capacity and condition; 2 Kent 234. See LEX LOCI. The disposition of, succession to, or distri- bution of the personal property of a de- cedent, wherever situated, is to be made in accordance with the law of his actual domicil at the time of his death; 8 Sim. 810; 8 Stor. 755; 11 Miss. 617; 1 Spear, Eq. 3; 4 Bradf. Surr. 127; 15 N. H. 137. See 143 Ill. 25. The principle applies equally to cases of voluntary transfer, of intestacy, and of tes- taments; 5 B. & C. 451; 3 Stor. 755; 8 Hagg. 273; 3 Curt. Eccl. 468; 9 Pet. 503; 2 Harr. & J. 191; 6 Pick. 286; 9 N. Η. 137; 8 Paige, Ch. 519; 1 Mas. 381; 6 T. B. Monr. 52; 29 Ala. N. S. 72; 6 Vt. 874. Stocks are considered as personal property in this re spect; 1 Cr. & J. 151; Bligh, N. S. 15; 1 Jarm. Wills 3. Movable articles are generally taxable at the place where they are actually situated, 141 U. S. 18, and domicil is the test of liabil- ity to personal taxes; 80 1a. 470; 158 Mass. 461. Wills are to be governed by the law of the domicil as to the capacity of parties; 1 Jarm. Wills 3; and as to their validity and effect in relation to the transfer of personal prop- erty; 4 Blackf. 53; 2 Ill. 878; 2 Bail. 436; 5 Pet. 519; 2 B. Monr. 582; 3 Curt. Eccl. 468; 11 Ν. H. 88; 1 M'Cord 354; 5 Gill & J. 488; 58 N. Y. 556; 35 Ala. 521; 52 Me. 165; 75 Pa. 201; but by the lex rei sitæ as to the transfer of real property; 1 Blackf. 372; 6 T. B. Monr. 527; 22 Me. 303; 8 Ohio 239; 7 Cra. 115; 31 Mo. 166; 27 Tex. 38: 14 Ves. 541: 75 Pa. 201. See LEX REI SITE. The forms and solemnities of the place of domicil must be observed: 8 Sim. 279; 4 M. & C. 76; 2 H. & J. 191; 1 Binn. 336; 4 Johns. Ch. 460; 1 Mas. 381; 12 Wheat. 169; 9 Pet. 483; 52 Me. 165; 3 Ala. 521; 15 La. Ann. 187, 154. The local law is to determine the char- acter of property; 6 Paige, Ch. 630; Story, Confl. Laws § 447; Erskine, Inst. b, 3, tit. 9, § 4. And it is held that a state may regu- ate the succession to personal as well as real property within its limits, without regard to the lex domicilii; 6 Humphr. 116. The interpretation of a will of movables is to be according to the law of the place of the last domicil of the testator; 3 Cl. & F. 544, 570; L. R. 3 H. L. 55; 68 Pa. 151; 4 Bligh 502; 3 Sim. 298; 2 Bro. Ch. 38; 9 Pet. 483. But so far as its validity is concerned, it does not matter that after the will was made in one domicil the testator went to another, where he died; Whart. Confi. Laws § 592; Beach, Wills 158, 10 Mo. 543; Story, Confi. Laws § 479 g. See 53 N. Y. 556. In Eng- land, by statute, a will does not become in- valid nor is its construction altered by reason of the testator's change of domicil after making it; Dicey, Dom. 308. It has been said that the rules as to construction of wills apply whether they be of real or personal property, unless i

domicilnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

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Archaic form of domicile.

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