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Inter-American Convention on Domicile of Natural Persons in Private International Law (B-44) [1979] OASMTSer 6

INTER-AMERICAN CONVENTION ON DOMICILE OF NATURAL PERSONS IN PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW

The Governments of the Member States of the Organization of American States, desirous of concluding a convention on domicile of natural persons in private international law, have agreed as follows:

Article 1

This Convention governs the uniform rules that regulate the domicile of natural persons in private international law.

Article 2

The domicile of a natural person shall be determined by the following circumstances in the order indicated:

1. The location of his habitual residence;

2. The location of his principal place of business;

3. In the absence of the foregoing, the place of mere residence;

4. In the absence of mere residence, the place where the person is located.

Article 3

The domicile of incompetent persons is that of their legal representatives, except when they are abandoned by those representatives, in which case their former domicile shall continue.

Article 4

The conjugal domicile is the place where the spouses live together, without prejudice to the right of each spouse to have his or her domicile determined in the manner established in Article 2.

Article 5

The domicile of diplomatic agents shall be their last domicile in the territory of the accrediting State. The domicile of natural persons temporarily residing abroad in the employment or commission of their Government shall be that of the State that appointed them.

Article 6

When a person has his domicile in two States Parties, he shall be considered to be domiciled in the State Party where he resides and, if he resides in both, the place in which he is located shall be preferred.

Article 7

This Convention shall be open for signature by the Member States of the Organization of American States.

Article 8

This Convention is subject to ratification. The instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States.

Article 9

This Convention shall remain open for accession by any other State. The instrument of accession shall be deposited with the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States.

Article 10

Each State may, at the time of signature, ratification, or accession, make reservations to this Convention provided thateach reservation concerns one or more specific provisions and is not incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention.

Article 11

This Convention shall enter into force on the thirtieth day following the date of deposit of the second instrument of ratification.

For each State ratifying or acceding to the Convention after the deposit of the second instrument of ratification, the Convention shall enter into force on the thirtieth day after deposit by such State of its instrument of ratification or accession.

Article 12

If a State Party has two or more territorial units in which different systems of law apply in relation to the matters dealt with in this Convention, it may, at the time of signature, ratification, or accession, declare that this Convention shall apply to all its territorial units or only to one or more of them.

Such declaration may be modified by subsequent declarations, which shall expressly indicate the territorial unit or units to which this Convention applies. Such subsequent declarations shall be transmitted to the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States and shall become effective thirty days after the date of their receipt.

Article 13

This Convention shall remain in force indefinitely, but any of the States Parties may denounce it. The instrument of denunciation shall be deposited with the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States. After one year from the date of deposit of the instrument of denunciation, the Convention shall no longer be in force for the denouncing State, but shall remain in force for the other States Parties.

Article 14

The original instrument of this Convention, the English, French, Portuguese and Spanish texts of which are equally authentic, shall be deposited with the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, which will forward an authenticated copy of the text to the Secretariat of the United Nations for registration and publication in accordance with Article 102 of its Charter. The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States shall notify the Member States of that Organization and the States that have acceded to the Convention of the signatures, deposits of instruments of ratification, accession and denunciation, as well as of reservations, if any. It shall also transmit the declarations referred to in Article 12 of this Convention.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned Plenipotentiaries, being duty authorized thereto by their respective Governments, have signed this Convention.

DONE AT MONTEVIDEO, Republic of Uruguay, this eighth day of May one thousand nine hundred and seventy-nine.