Domicile and Residence in Conflict of Laws

Domicile and Residence in Conflict of Laws

How Courts Determine a Person’s Legal Home When More Than One Jurisdiction Is Involved

Conflict of laws frequently requires a court to determine where a person is legally connected.

That question can become surprisingly difficult when someone lives, works, studies, owns property, conducts business, or maintains family relationships in more than one state or country.

A person may own a house in one state, work in another, spend several months each year somewhere else, and maintain a driver’s license, voter registration, bank accounts, or family connections in yet another jurisdiction.

Which jurisdiction is that person’s legal home?

The answer may depend upon the difference between domicile and residence.

In conflict-of-laws doctrine, domicile is generally a person’s legally recognized permanent home—the place to which the person intends to return and remain. Residence is ordinarily a broader and sometimes less permanent concept referring to where a person actually lives or maintains a living arrangement.

The distinction matters because a person’s domicile can determine which jurisdiction’s law applies to questions involving family relationships, succession, taxation, jurisdiction, personal status, and other legal matters. Residence can also serve as an important connecting factor, particularly when a statute or conflict-of-laws rule specifically relies upon where a person lives.

Cornell’s Legal Information Institute describes conflict of laws as the body of rules dealing with situations in which the laws of two or more jurisdictions may apply to the same dispute. Cornell Wex — Conflict of Laws

Domicile and residence help courts determine which jurisdiction has a meaningful legal relationship with a person and, consequently, whether that jurisdiction’s law should apply.

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1. What Is Domicile?

Domicile is traditionally understood as a person’s permanent legal home.

A person can have many residences during life, but ordinarily has only one domicile at a time for a particular legal purpose.

Domicile generally involves two elements:

1. Physical presence in a place; and
2. Intent to make that place a permanent or indefinite home.

Both elements are important.

Simply being physically present in a state does not necessarily establish domicile.

For example, a person might move to California for a six-month temporary assignment while maintaining a permanent home, family life, and intention to return to New York.

The person’s physical location is California, but the person’s domicile may remain New York.

Domicile therefore contains both a factual and an intentional component.

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2. Why Domicile Matters in Conflict of Laws

Domicile can operate as a connecting factor linking a person to a particular jurisdiction.

A court may consider domicile when determining which law should govern matters such as:

• inheritance;
• wills and estates;
• marital status;
• divorce;
• child-related legal issues;
• personal property;
• taxation;
• capacity;
• jurisdiction;
• succession; and
• certain statutory rights and obligations.

The importance of domicile varies according to the particular legal issue.

There is no universal rule saying that the law of a person’s domicile always governs every dispute involving that person.

Instead, domicile is one potentially important factor within a broader conflict-of-laws analysis.

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3. Domicile Is Not the Same as Physical Location

One of the most important principles is that domicile is not determined solely by where a person happens to be physically located.

Consider a student from Illinois who attends university in Massachusetts.

The student may live in Massachusetts for several years.

But if the student considers Illinois to remain their permanent home and intends to return there after completing education, Massachusetts may be the student’s residence while Illinois remains the student’s domicile.

Likewise, a military member may be physically stationed in one state while maintaining domicile in another.

The distinction between physical presence and legal home is therefore fundamental.

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4. The Two Traditional Elements of Domicile

The traditional common-law analysis identifies two principal elements.

Physical presence

The person must ordinarily have some actual connection with the jurisdiction.

A person generally cannot establish domicile in a jurisdiction without ever being present there.

Intent

The person must have an intention to make the jurisdiction a permanent or indefinite home.

The word indefinite is important.

A person does not necessarily need to intend to remain in the jurisdiction forever.

People cannot know exactly where life will take them.

Instead, the question is generally whether the person intends the jurisdiction to be their home for the foreseeable future rather than merely being there temporarily for a specific purpose.

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5. Domicile of Origin

At common law, a person acquires a domicile of origin at birth.

Traditionally, the domicile of a child is connected to the domicile of the child’s parents under rules that have developed differently depending upon the circumstances and applicable law.

Domicile of origin provides an initial legal domicile.

It does not necessarily remain unchanged throughout a person’s life.

A person can later acquire a domicile of choice by establishing the required physical presence and intent in another jurisdiction.

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6. Domicile of Choice

A domicile of choice is acquired when a person establishes a new legal home with the necessary intent.

For example, suppose Maria has lived in Pennsylvania for many years.

She accepts a permanent job in Texas, sells her Pennsylvania house, moves her primary household to Texas, obtains a Texas driver’s license, registers to vote there, and intends to make Texas her permanent home.

Those facts could support the conclusion that Maria has established Texas as her domicile.

Her previous Pennsylvania domicile may therefore be replaced.

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7. Changing Domicile

Changing domicile generally requires more than simply moving from one place to another.

The person must generally:

1. Leave the former domicile;
2. Establish physical presence in the new jurisdiction; and
3. Form the necessary intent to make the new jurisdiction a permanent or indefinite home.

The precise legal test varies according to the jurisdiction and legal issue.

Nevertheless, the central principle is relatively consistent:

A change of domicile requires both relocation and the legally sufficient intention to establish a new home.

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8. Domicile Is Not Easily Lost

Another important principle is that abandoning an existing domicile does not necessarily occur simply because a person temporarily leaves.

A person may travel for:

• education;
• employment;
• military service;
• medical treatment;
• seasonal work;
• family obligations;
• business;
• temporary assignments; or
• other limited purposes.

Temporary absence does not automatically establish a new domicile.

In many situations, a person’s existing domicile continues until a new domicile is actually established.

This principle prevents a person’s legal home from changing every time the person temporarily relocates.

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9. Residence: A Broader Concept

Residence generally refers to where a person actually lives or maintains a place of living.

Unlike domicile, residence does not necessarily require an intention to remain permanently or indefinitely.

A person can therefore have:

• a residence in one jurisdiction;
• a second residence elsewhere; and
• a domicile that differs from both.

For example, someone might maintain a permanent home in New York but spend six months each year at a residence in Florida.

Depending upon the applicable legal rule, the person may have residences in both states while maintaining only one domicile.

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10. Residence and Domicile Compared

The distinction can be summarized conceptually:

Concept	Primary Question
Domicile	Where is the person’s permanent or indefinite legal home?
Residence	Where does the person actually live?
Habitual residence	Where does the person ordinarily and regularly live?
Citizenship	To which state or nation does the person have a formal legal or political allegiance?

These concepts can overlap, but they are not identical.

The applicable statute or conflict-of-laws rule determines which concept matters.

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11. Can a Person Have More Than One Residence?

Yes.

A person can maintain residences in multiple jurisdictions.

For example, a person might:

• own a home in Colorado;
• rent an apartment in New York;
• spend summers in Maine; and
• travel internationally for work.

Those locations can potentially constitute residences under different legal definitions.

But the person will ordinarily have only one domicile at a particular time for a particular legal purpose.

This is one of the principal differences between residence and domicile.

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12. Can a Person Have More Than One Domicile?

Traditional legal doctrine generally treats a person as having one domicile at a time.

This does not mean that determining domicile is always simple.

The facts may point in different directions.

A person may:

• own property in several states;
• maintain bank accounts in multiple states;
• have family in one state;
• work in another;
• vote somewhere else;
• maintain multiple driver’s licenses or registrations over time; or
• spend substantial periods in several locations.

The court must evaluate the person’s overall circumstances.

The objective is to identify the person’s legally relevant permanent or indefinite home rather than simply counting connections.

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13. Objective Evidence of Domicile

Because intent is difficult to observe directly, courts frequently examine objective evidence.

Potential evidence can include:

• ownership or rental of a home;
• location of family;
• employment;
• business activity;
• driver’s license;
• vehicle registration;
• voter registration;
• tax filings;
• mailing address;
• bank accounts;
• professional licenses;
• membership organizations;
• declarations of permanent residence;
• location of personal belongings;
• duration of physical presence; and
• statements concerning future plans.

No single factor necessarily determines domicile.

The court generally considers the evidence as a whole.

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14. Statements of Intent

A person’s statements can be important evidence.

A person might state:

“I moved to Texas permanently.”

Or:

“I am living in California temporarily for work and intend to return to Oregon.”

Such statements may help establish intent.

But courts may examine whether the person’s conduct is consistent with those statements.

Someone may claim that Florida is their permanent home while maintaining their primary household, employment, family life, and ordinary activities in another state.

The court may therefore consider conduct more persuasive than unsupported declarations.

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15. Domicile and Multiple Homes

Modern lifestyles make domicile questions increasingly complicated.

People may maintain homes in:

• New York;
• Florida;
• California;
• another U.S. state; and
• another country.

A person might spend significant time in each location.

The existence of several homes does not necessarily create several domiciles.

The legal question is usually which place constitutes the person’s principal legal home under the applicable standard.

Courts may consider the person’s intentions and the practical realities of the person’s life.

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16. Residence as a Statutory Connecting Factor

Some laws use residence rather than domicile.

A statute might provide that a particular rule applies when a person is:

“a resident of this state.”

That language can have a specific statutory meaning.

The court should therefore not automatically replace “resident” with “domiciliary.”

The legislature may intend residence to be determined through a particular statutory test.

This is particularly important in areas such as:

• taxation;
• insurance;
• family law;
• public benefits;
• licensing;
• voting;
• education; and
• regulatory law.

The exact statutory definition can therefore be decisive.

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17. Habitual Residence

The concept of habitual residence is related to residence but is not necessarily identical to either residence or domicile.

Habitual residence focuses more strongly on where a person ordinarily and regularly lives.

The concept is particularly important in international legal contexts and certain family-law disputes.

Unlike domicile, habitual residence generally does not depend upon the same formal concept of permanent legal home.

The distinction becomes particularly important when U.S. courts encounter international conventions or foreign legal systems that use habitual residence as a connecting factor.

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18. Domicile and Citizenship

Domicile should also be distinguished from citizenship.

A U.S. citizen can be domiciled in California, New York, Texas, or another state.

Likewise, a U.S. citizen may establish a domicile outside the United States depending upon the relevant legal context.

Citizenship concerns formal membership in a political community.

Domicile concerns a person’s legally recognized home.

The two concepts can therefore point in different directions.

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19. Domicile in Diversity Jurisdiction

Domicile has particular importance in federal civil procedure.

For purposes of federal diversity jurisdiction, an individual’s citizenship is generally determined by domicile rather than simply by residence.

For example, a person who owns a house and spends substantial time in Florida may nevertheless remain domiciled in New York.

That distinction can determine whether complete diversity exists between the parties.

Thus, the seemingly simple question “Where does this person live?” can have significant jurisdictional consequences.

Domicile in this context is therefore much more than an address.

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20. Domicile in Family Law

Domicile has historically played an important role in family law.

Questions involving:

• marriage;
• divorce;
• marital status;
• legitimacy;
• parental relationships;
• support obligations; and
• succession

can involve the parties’ domiciles.

However, modern family-law jurisdiction frequently relies on additional concepts such as residence, habitual residence, statutory residency periods, and the child’s home state.

Consequently, domicile remains important but should not be assumed to control every family-law question.

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21. Domicile and Divorce

Historically, domicile was particularly significant in determining which jurisdiction could exercise authority over marital status.

Modern divorce statutes often establish specific residency or domicile requirements.

A state may require a spouse to have maintained a particular connection with the state for a specified period before filing for divorce.

The applicable statute therefore matters.

A person cannot simply assume that maintaining a temporary residence in a state automatically satisfies every divorce-related residency requirement.

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22. Domicile and Child Custody

Child-custody disputes often require courts to determine the child’s home state or habitual residence rather than simply the parent’s domicile.

Under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), for example, jurisdictional analysis focuses heavily on the child’s home state and related connections.

This illustrates a broader conflict-of-laws principle:

The relevant connecting factor depends upon the legal issue.

The parent’s domicile may matter for one question, while the child’s home state may matter for another.

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23. Domicile and Estates

Domicile can be particularly significant in succession and estate law.

When a person dies owning property in multiple jurisdictions, courts may have to distinguish between:

• real property;
• personal property;
• the decedent’s domicile; and
• the location of the assets.

Traditionally, the law of the decedent’s domicile has played an important role in matters involving personal property and succession, while real property is strongly connected to the jurisdiction where the property is located.

Thus, a person domiciled in New Jersey who owns real estate in New York may create a conflict-of-laws problem involving two jurisdictions.

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24. Domicile and Real Property

Real property is generally governed heavily by the law of the jurisdiction where the property is located.

This principle is often expressed through the concept of lex rei sitae.

Consequently, the owner’s domicile may be less important than the property’s location for questions involving:

• title;
• conveyancing;
• recording;
• interests in land; and
• certain property rights.

This demonstrates why domicile should never be treated as an automatic answer to every conflict-of-laws problem.

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25. Domicile and Personal Property

Personal property traditionally has a stronger connection to the owner’s domicile than real property does.

Historically, the maxim mobilia sequuntur personam expressed the idea that movable property follows the person.

Modern conflict-of-laws doctrine is more sophisticated than this traditional formula, particularly for complex intangible assets and financial instruments.

Nevertheless, the owner’s domicile can remain an important connecting factor for certain questions involving personal property.

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26. Domicile of Businesses and Legal Entities

Domicile is primarily associated with individuals, but similar concepts can apply to legal entities.

Corporations have:

• a state of incorporation; and
• one or more places of business.

For conflict-of-laws purposes, courts may instead consider concepts such as:

• place of incorporation;
• principal place of business;
• headquarters;
• place of business activity; and
• statutory residence.

Corporate citizenship and domicile therefore require separate analysis from individual domicile.

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27. Domicile and Choice of Law

Domicile can serve as one of the connecting factors in a choice-of-law analysis.

Suppose two individuals domiciled in Pennsylvania enter into an agreement concerning conduct occurring in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania law may have a strong connection to the dispute.

Now imagine that the same parties enter into a transaction concerning property in California and perform their obligations there.

California may have a stronger relationship to particular issues.

The point is not that domicile automatically determines governing law.

Rather, domicile can contribute to the jurisdictional and policy analysis used to identify the law applicable to a particular issue.

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28. Domicile and Interest Analysis

Modern conflict-of-laws approaches may examine the governmental interests of the jurisdictions connected to a dispute.

Domicile can be relevant because a state has an interest in protecting and regulating persons who are domiciled there.

For example, a jurisdiction may have a strong interest in regulating the legal consequences of certain relationships involving its domiciliaries.

But another state may have a stronger interest because the conduct at issue occurred there.

The court may therefore compare the competing interests rather than automatically applying the law of domicile.

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29. Domicile and the Most Significant Relationship

Under approaches associated with the Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws, the court may consider which jurisdiction has the most significant relationship to the particular issue.

Domicile may be one factor among several.

Other factors can include:

• place of conduct;
• place of injury;
• place of contracting;
• place of performance;
• location of property;
• residence of the parties; and
• the parties’ expectations.

The importance of domicile therefore depends on the nature of the dispute.

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30. Temporary Relocation

Temporary relocation is one of the most common sources of confusion.

Imagine that a person domiciled in Illinois accepts a one-year employment assignment in Arizona.

The person rents an apartment in Arizona but keeps the Illinois home, maintains close family connections there, and intends to return after the assignment.

Physical residence may have shifted.

Domicile may not have.

The court would examine the person’s purpose, intentions, conduct, and overall relationship with both jurisdictions.

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31. Students

Students provide another classic example.

A student may leave a parent’s home in one state and live at a university in another.

The student’s residence may be the university state.

But domicile may remain in the original state if the student does not intend to establish a permanent or indefinite home elsewhere.

The analysis is fact-specific.

Educational residence should therefore not automatically be equated with domicile.

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32. Military Personnel

Military service can also produce complicated domicile questions.

Service members may be physically stationed in many states over the course of their careers.

A temporary military assignment does not necessarily establish a new domicile.

Federal law and specific state statutes may also affect the treatment of military personnel for particular purposes.

Accordingly, military domicile questions should be analyzed under the specific legal rule involved rather than assuming that physical stationing determines domicile.

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33. Elderly Persons and Assisted Living

Domicile questions can also arise when an individual moves into assisted living or long-term care.

Suppose a person historically lived in one state but moves to another state to receive care.

The new location may become the person’s residence.

Whether it becomes the person’s domicile can depend upon whether the person intended to make the new location a permanent or indefinite home and upon the applicable legal standard.

This can become particularly important in estate and succession disputes.

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34. People Who Move Frequently

Modern employment and lifestyle patterns can make traditional domicile analysis difficult.

Some individuals move frequently between:

• states;
• cities;
• temporary accommodations; or
• countries.

The absence of a conventional permanent home does not necessarily mean that domicile cannot be determined.

Courts may examine the person’s overall pattern of life and identify the jurisdiction with which the person has the strongest legally relevant permanent connection.

Intent remains important, but it is evaluated together with objective circumstances.

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35. Domicile and Digital Life

Digital connectivity has made domicile questions even more interesting.

A person may:

• work remotely;
• maintain clients in several states;
• receive mail electronically;
• bank in multiple jurisdictions;
• own property remotely; and
• spend long periods traveling.

None of these facts eliminates the concept of domicile.

Instead, they make the factual inquiry more complex.

A digital worker can have clients throughout the country while maintaining a single legal domicile.

The location of economic activity therefore should not automatically be confused with domicile.

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36. Domicile and Taxation

Tax law frequently uses concepts such as domicile, residence, and statutory residence, but tax definitions can differ from general conflict-of-laws doctrine.

A person might be considered a resident for one tax purpose under a statutory test while maintaining a different domicile under another legal framework.

Tax residency therefore must be analyzed under the applicable tax statute rather than assumed from general domicile principles.

This is an important example of why legal terms that sound similar can have different technical meanings in different areas of law.

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37. Abandonment of Domicile

A person may abandon a domicile by leaving it with the intention not to return as a permanent or indefinite home.

But abandonment alone does not necessarily mean that the person immediately acquires a new domicile.

The legal consequences depend upon the facts and applicable law.

This creates an important distinction:

Leaving a domicile and acquiring a new domicile are related but conceptually distinct events.

A person can leave a former home without immediately establishing another permanent legal home.

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38. Burden of Proving Domicile

In litigation, the party relying on domicile may have to establish it through evidence.

The applicable burden of proof depends upon the particular legal issue and jurisdiction.

Courts may evaluate documentary evidence, testimony, conduct, and surrounding circumstances.

Because domicile often affects jurisdiction, the question can be litigated intensively when the parties disagree about where someone is legally domiciled.

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39. Domicile as a Question of Fact and Law

Domicile frequently involves both factual and legal analysis.

The court may first determine factual questions such as:

• Where did the person live?
• When did the person move?
• Where was the person’s family?
• What property did the person maintain?
• What did the person say about the move?
• What did the person actually do?

The court then applies the applicable legal standard to those facts.

Thus, domicile is neither purely subjective nor determined by a single document.

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40. Why Domicile and Residence Matter in Conflict of Laws

Domicile and residence are important because conflict-of-laws doctrine needs connecting factors.

When a dispute touches multiple jurisdictions, the court must identify the relationships that connect the dispute to those jurisdictions.

For individuals, relevant connections may include:

• domicile;
• residence;
• habitual residence;
• citizenship;
• place of employment;
• place of conduct;
• place of injury;
• family location; and
• property location.

Domicile and residence are therefore part of the broader architecture of conflict-of-laws analysis.

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A Practical Domicile Analysis

When a court needs to determine an individual’s domicile, a useful analytical sequence is:

Step 1: Identify the legal issue

Determine why domicile matters.

The applicable test may differ depending upon whether the issue involves jurisdiction, family law, succession, taxation, or another subject.

Step 2: Identify the person’s physical location

Determine where the person actually lived and when.

Step 3: Examine intent

Ask whether the person intended to make the new jurisdiction a permanent or indefinite home.

Step 4: Examine objective evidence

Consider:

• housing;
• employment;
• family;
• registration;
• taxes;
• voting;
• personal belongings;
• business activity; and
• other connections.

Step 5: Determine whether the prior domicile was abandoned

A move does not automatically establish a new domicile.

Step 6: Determine whether a new domicile was established

The court applies the relevant legal standard to the facts.

Step 7: Apply the appropriate conflict-of-laws rule

Finally, determine what legal significance the domicile has for the particular dispute.

This final step is crucial.

Determining domicile and determining which law applies are not the same question.

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An Example of Domicile in Conflict of Laws

Consider a person who has historically lived in New York.

The person owns a New York home, has family there, votes there, and has long regarded New York as home.

The person accepts a three-year employment assignment in California.

During the assignment, the person:

• rents an apartment in California;
• works full-time there;
• obtains a California driver’s license;
• spends most of the year in California; and
• travels back to New York several times each year.

The person nevertheless plans to return to New York after the assignment and continues to regard the New York home as the permanent family home.

A court would not necessarily conclude that California became the person’s domicile merely because the person spent more physical time there.

The central question would include whether California became the person’s intended permanent or indefinite home.

The facts could therefore support a California residence while New York remains the person’s domicile.

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Domicile, Residence, and the Modern Conflict-of-Laws System

The traditional concept of domicile remains important, but modern conflict-of-laws doctrine does not treat it as a universal master principle.

Contemporary courts often use a combination of connecting factors.

The appropriate factor may depend upon the issue.

For example:

• real property → location of the property;
• contract → contractual choice, performance, relationships, and other connections;
• tort → place of injury, conduct, relationships, and governmental interests;
• family jurisdiction → statutory residence, domicile, or the child’s home state;
• succession → decedent’s domicile and property location;
• federal diversity jurisdiction → individual citizenship based on domicile;
• international family disputes → potentially habitual residence.

This issue-specific approach prevents domicile from becoming an automatic answer to fundamentally different legal questions.

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Key Takeaways

1. Domicile is a person’s legally recognized permanent or indefinite home.
2. Residence generally refers to where a person actually lives and can be broader than domicile.
3. A person can have multiple residences but ordinarily has only one domicile at a time.
4. Domicile traditionally requires both physical presence and the intent to make the place a permanent or indefinite home.
5. Temporary relocation does not necessarily change domicile.
6. Objective evidence is important because intent is rarely proved by words alone.
7. Domicile is different from citizenship, residence, and habitual residence.
8. The importance of domicile depends upon the particular legal issue.
9. Real property is strongly connected to the jurisdiction where the property is located, even when the owner is domiciled elsewhere.
10. Federal diversity jurisdiction generally determines an individual’s citizenship by domicile rather than merely by residence.
11. Residence may be the controlling connecting factor when a statute specifically uses residence as its test.
12. Domicile is one connecting factor within conflict-of-laws analysis, not an automatic answer to every choice-of-law question.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can someone have two domiciles?

Traditional doctrine generally treats a person as having only one domicile at a time. A person can, however, have residences in multiple jurisdictions.

Can someone have two residences?

Yes. A person can maintain residences in more than one jurisdiction.

Does moving to another state automatically change domicile?

No. Physical relocation alone does not necessarily establish a new domicile. Intent to make the new jurisdiction a permanent or indefinite home is traditionally an important additional requirement.

What evidence proves domicile?

Courts can consider housing, employment, family connections, voter registration, driver’s licenses, tax filings, property ownership, personal belongings, statements of intent, and many other circumstances.

Is domicile the same as citizenship?

No. Citizenship is a legal or political status. Domicile concerns a person’s legal home.

Is domicile the same as residence?

No. Residence generally concerns where someone lives, while domicile carries the additional concept of a permanent or indefinite legal home.

Can domicile affect federal jurisdiction?

Yes. For purposes of federal diversity jurisdiction, an individual’s state citizenship is generally determined by domicile.

Does domicile always determine which state’s law applies?

No. Domicile is one possible connecting factor. The applicable law may instead depend on the subject matter, the jurisdiction’s conflict-of-laws methodology, statutory rules, contractual choices, and other connections.

What happens when a person moves but does not establish a new domicile?

Depending on the circumstances, the person’s existing domicile may continue until a new domicile is established.

Why is domicile important in estate disputes?

The decedent’s domicile can be an important connecting factor in succession and personal-property questions, while real property is generally strongly connected to the jurisdiction where the property is located.

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Conclusion

Domicile and residence may appear to be ordinary concepts describing where a person lives. In conflict-of-laws doctrine, however, they can carry significant legal consequences.

Residence describes a person’s physical living situation. Domicile identifies a person’s legally recognized home.

That distinction becomes especially important when an individual has meaningful connections to several jurisdictions.

A person may live in California while remaining domiciled in New York. A student may reside in Massachusetts while maintaining domicile in another state. A business executive may maintain homes in several jurisdictions while having only one legally relevant domicile. A person may also be a citizen of one country, habitually reside in another, and maintain a domicile somewhere else for a particular legal purpose.

Courts therefore cannot resolve domicile questions simply by asking where someone slept most recently or which address appears on a document.

They examine physical presence, intent, conduct, relationships, objective evidence, and the specific legal rule involved.

Most importantly, domicile is not itself the final conflict-of-laws answer. It is a connecting factor. Its legal significance depends upon the particular issue before the court and the conflict-of-laws methodology applicable to that dispute.

Understanding that distinction is essential to understanding how American courts decide which jurisdiction’s law should govern disputes involving people whose lives cross state or national boundaries.