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Subject Area: Law
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

§ 53.: Citizenship and domicile distinguished.— - Christopher G. Tiedeman, A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint, vol. 1 [1900]

Edition used:

A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint (St. Louis: The F.H. Thomas Law Book Co., 1900). Vol. 1.

Part of: A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint, 2 vols.

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§ 53.

Citizenship and domicile distinguished.—

The distinction between citizenship and domicile has been so often explained in elementary treatises that only a passing reference will be needed here, in order to refresh the memory of the reader. Mr. Cooley defines a citizen to be “a member of the civil state entitled to all its privileges.”1 Mr. Blackstone’s definition of allegiance, which is the obligation of the citizen, is “the tie which binds the subject to the sovereign, in return for that protection which the sovereign affords the subject.”2 Citizenship, therefore, is that political status which supports mutual rights and obligations. The State, of which an individual is a citizen, may require of him various duties of a political character; while he is entitled to the protection of the government against all foreign attacks, and is likewise invested with political rights according to the character of the government of the State, the chief of which is the right of suffrage.

Domicile is the place where one permanently resides. One’s permanent residence may be, and usually is, in the country of which he is a citizen, but it need not be, and very often is not. One can be domiciled in a foreign land. While a domicile in a foreign State subjects the individual and his personal property to the regulation and control of the law of the domicile, i. e., creates a local or temporary allegiance on the part of the individual to the State in which he is resident, and although he can claim the protection of the laws during his residence in that State, he does not assume political obligations or acquire political rights, and can not claim the protection of the government, after he has taken his departure from the country. Only a citizen can claim protection outside of the country.

There is no permanent tie binding the resident alien to the State, and there is no permanent obligation on the part of either. The individual is at liberty to abandon his domicle, whenever he so determines, without let or hindrance on the part of the State, in which he has been resident. This is certainly true of a domicile in a foreign country.

[1]Cooley on Const. Law, 77.

[2]1 Bl. Com. *441.