Does domicil bear a single meaning?

Domicil is an important legal concept in the United States. It plays a particularly significant role in conflict of laws (private international law), where it affects such broad areas as judicial jurisdiction, choice of law and governmental benefits and burdens. As to the first area a state has in personam judicial jurisdiction over its domiciliaries whether or not they are physically within its territory at the time of service of process. And, under prevailing conceptions, only the state where at least one of the spouses is domiciled has jurisdiction to terminate their marriage by divorce. One cannot be a citizen of a state of the United States unless one is domiciled there. This means that the parties must have different domicils for a federal court to have jurisdiction over an action between them on the ground that they are “Citizens of different States” within the meaning of Article III, Section 2, of the Constitution. In the second area, choice of law, the law of a man's domicil controls such matters relating to his personal status as legitimacy, adoption, emancipation (if minor), and the validity of his marriage. The same law governs the transfer of personal property upon death and therefore determines such questions as the validity of a will dealing with personalty and the division of such property in the event of an intestacy. With respect to the third area, it is the state of domicil which allows a man to vote and to hold public office. Conversely, this state can subject the individual to various types of personal taxation and, perhaps of greatest importance in this connection, can impose an inheritance tax upon all of his intangibles. Whether or not the defendant is domiciled in a particular state is also a material factor to be considered in determining whether he is a nonresident ofthat state within the meaning of a provision tolling the statutory period of limitation.