Domicile

Domicile, the lawful home of anyone, or the place which the law infers as such from attendant circumstances, as the keeping of a wife or family. In the case of infants and married women their domicile is that of their parents or husband. The domicile of a person is often an important factor in legal and matrimonial and other proceedings, as it determines all his personal capacities and incapacities. Thus the question whether one can contract a legal marriage with another is regulated not by the law of the country wherein the ceremony may have taken place but by the law of his domicile; so, the', legitimacy and majority of an infant (excepting his capacity of inheriting real estate) is dependent on the law of the parents' domicile, and the devolution of personal estate is regulated not by the law of the country where he may happen to die, nor by the locale of the property, but by the law of domicile. Formerly a will of personal estate was required to be made according to the formalities prescribed by the law of the country where the testator was domiciled at the time of death, but this was abolished as regards all wills made after August, 1861, and it is now sufficient if a will made out of the United Kingdom by a British subject is made according to the formalities prescribed by the law of the place where it was made, or by the law of his domicile at the time, or by the law of his domicile of origin or birth. As regards bankruptcy, a debtor must be domiciled in England or (within a year from the date of petition) must have had his residence or place of business in England. A domicile may be either original or acquired. The original domicile is that of the parents of the person at the time of his birth, and usually agrees with his nationality. The acquisition of a new domicile is only complete when the former domicile is completely abandoned, and an actual removal is made to the acquired domicile.