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.