DOMAT or DAUMAT, JEAN (1625-1696), French jurisconsult, was born at Clermont in Auvergne. He was closely in sympathy with the Port-Royalists, and was intimate with Pas cal, at whose death he was entrusted with his private papers. He is principally known from his legal digest entitled Lois civiles dans leer ordre naturel for which Louis XIV. settled on him a pension of 2,000 livres. A fourth volume, Le Droit public, was published in a year after his death. This is one of the most important works on the science of law that France has produced. Domat endeavoured to found all law upon ethical or religious principles, his motto being L'homme est fait par Dieu et pour Dieu. Besides the Lois Civiles, Domat made in Latin a selection of the most common laws in the collections of Justinian, under the title of Legum delectus (Paris, 1700; Amsterdam, 1703) ; it was subsequently appended to the Lois civiles. His works have been translated into English.
In the Journal des savants for 1843 are several papers on Domat by Victor Cousin, giving much information not otherwise accessible.