Trump v. Barbara · ¶193

First, domicile determined which government had the power to declare the law as to an individual’s most important personal affairs. Story on Conflict of Laws 51–52. The law governing personal affairs included the laws of marriage and divorce, which followed a couple’s domicile. E.g., Hood, 93 Mass., at 199–200; Ditson v. Ditson, 4 R. I. 87, 93–94 (1856). It included laws governing the succession of a person’s estate, which was distributed “according to the law of distribution of the place of his domicil.” 2 J. Kent, Commentaries on American Law 67 (1848); accord, Wharton Treatise 1872, §20, at 34–35. And, it included laws governing a person’s age of majority, his capacity to contract, his right to sue, and his rights with respect to moveable property. See, e.g., 1 W. Burge, Commentaries on Colonial and Foreign Laws 32 (1832); 1 Twiss 217–237; Inhabitants of Abington, 40 Mass., at 176;…

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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