domicile, in law, a person’s dwelling place as it is defined for purposes of judicial jurisdiction and governmental burdens and benefits. Certain aspects of a person’s legal existence do not vary with the state he happens to be in at any given moment but are governed by a personal law that follows him at all times. In Anglo-American countries applying the common law, one’s personal law is that of his domicile; in civil-law countries (e.g., those of Europe and Latin America), it is often that of his nationality or place of habitual residence.
The place in which a person is domiciled has judicial jurisdiction over him (i.e., a case can be tried against him in its courts, even though he happens to be outside its borders at the time he is summoned). As far as governmental burdens and benefits are concerned, only the place of a person’s domicile can impose an inheritance tax upon all of his intangibles. The law of a person’s domicile determines the validity of his will with respect to personal property or determines how such property is distributed if he dies without a will. The law of a person’s domicile also may play a part in determining the legitimacy of the person’s birth and the validity of his marriage.
It is a fundamental principle in Western law that every person must have a domicile at all times. A domicile is not lost until another domicile has been acquired, and a person cannot have more than one domicile at a time for the same purpose. Generally, there are three kinds of domicile: domicile of origin, domicile of choice, and domicile by operation of law.
At birth a person acquires a domicile of origin, almost always that of his father. If the father is deceased or a child is born out of wedlock, the domicile is that of his mother. Most people possess a domicile of choice, usually established by voluntary physical presence at the place where domicile is claimed; presence by reason of compulsion (e.g., imprisonment) usually is not sufficient. If a person claims a place as a home but is not residing there, he must prove an intent to make the place a home. Persons who lack the legal capacity to acquire a domicile of their own possess domicile by operation of law. The prime example is minor children whose domicile is usually that of the father. Traditionally, the domicile of a married woman was that of her husband as long as she lived with him.
Complications arise because statutes rarely use the word domicile but refer instead to residence (or, in some statutes, abode). In such contexts, residence usually bears the same meaning as domicile, but on occasion it may mean something else, such as a well-settled physical connection with the state without bearing toward it the requisite attitude of mind that one intends to reside there. Sometimes residence means something more than domicile—namely, domicile in a place plus physical presence there during a specified period of time. Residence when used in a statute means a far closer relationship with a state than mere physical presence there. As in the case of domicile, once a residence has been acquired, it is not lost by a temporary absence from the state. In contrast to domicile, a person may have more than one residence at a time.