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, so often surrounded by difficul ties, the law endeavors 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 code which says, " every man has his domicile where he has placed his hearth and centered his fortunes, 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. 40, 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 king doms, 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 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; unless it be lost by non-residence, under the provisions of a statute, as is the case with paupers, for the purposes of parish relief in Scotland. 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 inten tion of remaining permanently fixed there (anima manendt), 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 inten tion of remaining, or quitting a place of residence, are amongst the most difficult in the law of domicile, Most persons who arc resident abroad have a sort of floating nation that, in certain conceivable circumstances, they would 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 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, to make the law uniform, so that the will of a British subject. as regards personal estate, made out of the United Kingdom, is deemed valid, wherever his domicile may be, if the will is conform able to the law of the country where made, or to the law of the domicile of origin. And by a later statute in 1868, even as regards real or heritable estate, an Englisn wilt is to have effect given to it as regards property situated in Scotland. It is impossible, in our limits, to enumerate other effects of the law of domicile. Generally, it may be stated that it regulates the succession to personal or movable property, which is said to follow the person, and must be distributed after death according to the law of the country of which the deceased died a domiciled citizen. Heritable•or real property, again, descends in accordance with the law of the land in which it is situated (lex ref. silo). As to the effect of a domicile of citation in Scotland in actions of divorce, see DIVORCE, MARRIAGE.