CHAPTER XXII.

PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW.

SECTION I.-NATURE OF PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW.

373. PRIVATE international law consists of the principles and rules by which persons and things residing or situated in a country are affected by the laws prevailing in another.

374. Such rules may affect the status of the person, marriage and divorce, acts and contracts, corporeal and incorporeal property, successions, legal proceedings, foreign judgments, and the commission of crime.

SECTION II.-DOMICILE.

375. The national character of a person de

pends on his domicile, which may be either of origin or of choice.

376. The domicile of origin is the place of birth or the native land; that of choice is the place of residence with an express or implied intention of dwelling in it.

377. A wife has the domicile of her husband, and a minor that of his parents.

378. The ambassador preserves the domicile of the country which he represents, but the consul, if he engages in trade, acquires the domicile of the place where he resides.

SECTION III. STATUS.

379. Conflicting rules obtain as to the laws which should govern the status and capacity of the person. By the French and Italian rules the status and capacity of the persons are governed by the law of origin; by the British and American they are governed by the law of domicile.

SECTION IV.-MARRIAGE.

380. A marriage valid according to the law of the place where it was contracted is valid everywhere. If invalid there it is invalid everywhere, and the issues of the same would be held illegitimate.

381. The lex loci actus governs the form and ceremonies of marriage, but there is a conflict of law as regards the need of the consent of parents and guardians and the capacity of the party to contract the same.

By the Italian Code, s. 102, the capacity of an alien to contract marriage is determined by the law of the country to which he belongs. An alien wishing to contract marriage in the kingdom must present to the officer of the Civil State a declaration from a competent authority in the country to which he belongs, showing that there is nothing contrary to such marriage in the laws by which he is governed.

SECTION V.-ACTS AND CONTRACTS.

382. The validity of any act or contract is decided by the lex loci contractus or the law of the place where it is made.

383. All the formalities and proofs required by the law of the place where the contract is made are likewise indispensable for their validity everywhere else.

384. The law of the place where the contract is made governs also the interest and damages in a contract.

385. Every person contracting in a country is understood to submit himself to the law of the same, and to accept its action upon his contract.

386. In the interpretation of contracts the law and customs of the place where the contract was made to govern in all cases when the language is not directly expressive of the actual intention of the parties, and they are tacitly inferred from the nature, objects, and occasion of the contract.

387. The law of the place where the contract is to be executed or the lex fori regulates the remedies.

SECTION VI-SUCCESSIONS.

388. The succession to movable property

of a person dying intestate is governed by the law of the place of domicile of the intestate at the time of his death.

389. A conflict of law exists on the power of the testator. Foreign law empowers him to adopt the form either required by the lex loci actio or by the lex domicilii. English law compels him to adopt the form prescribed by the lex domicilii.

390. The law of domicile governs the construction of the testamentary instrument, unless the testator expressly states that he had in view the lex sitús.

391. The following treaties exist, regulating the reciprocal communication of acts relating to the status of the person, and also the administration of successions.

SECTION VII.-TREATY CLAUSES CONCERNING THE ADMINISTRATION OF SUCCESSIONS.

See Treaties between Austria and France of January 5, 1879; Austria and Servia, May 6, 1881; Brazil and Italy, June 14, 1879; France and Russia, April 1, 1874; Germany and Russia, November 12,

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