Every State within meaning (2) above is a State within meaning (1) above, but the reverse does not hold. For example, the United States is a State under both definitions, but California is a State only under the first.

This article is primarily about the first definition.

For the purposes of Private International Law Conflict of laws is that branch of international law and intranational interstate law that regulates all lawsuits involving a "foreign" law element where different judgments will result depending on which jurisdiction's laws are applied as the lex causae, a State is a defined group of people, living within defined territorial boundaries and more or less subject to an autonomous legal system exercising jurisdiction Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility through properly constituted courts A court is a body, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes and dispense civil, criminal, or administrative justice in accordance with rules of law. In common law and civil law states, courts are the central means for dispute resolution, and it is generally understood that all persons have an ability to.

The usage of the term "State" rather than nation Though "nation" is also commonly used in informal discourse as a synonym for state or country, a nation is not identical to a state. Countries where the social concept of "nation" coincides with the political concept of "state" are called nation states and country Country is a term referring to the territory of a state, or to a smaller, or former, political division of a geographical region. Usually, but not always, a country coincides with a sovereign territory and is associated with a state, nation and government is to refer unambiguously to the legal government of a territory, rather than to its people or culture. However, the term "country" is still sometimes used in this way; see for example section 4 of Domicile Act 1982 (Cth.), which defines "country" as "includes any State, province or other territory that is one of 2 or more territories that together form a country." (see domicile (law) In Conflict of Laws, domicile is the basis of the choice of law rule operating in the characterisation framework to define a person's status, capacity and rights. The international term for this as a connecting factor is the lex domicilii, i.e. the law of the domicile).

Examples

In the majority of cases, countries Country is a term referring to the territory of a state, or to a smaller, or former, political division of a geographical region. Usually, but not always, a country coincides with a sovereign territory and is associated with a state, nation and government are unitary, i.e. like Italy Italy /ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica Italiana), is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The and Sweden Sweden (pronounced /ˈswiːdən/ ), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige (help·info)), is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the Öresund Bridge in the south, they only have one legal system and no problem will arise. In the case of countries electing to assume or retain composite or federated status, the extent to which each separated regional unit will constitute a State will be determined by whether that unit has a sufficiently significant volume of laws distinguishable from those applied in other units. Hence, in the territorially separated States constituting the United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the, the laws are sufficiently distinctive to elevate them to States for this purpose. However, the use of federal law-making powers means that countries may be single units for some purposes, and constituent States for others. Thus, the fact that Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the mainland, which is both the world's smallest continent and the world's largest island, the island of Tasmania, and numerous other islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.N4 It is the only area of land simultaneously considered a continent,, Canada Canada is a country occupying most of upper North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area and shares the world's longest common border with the United States to the south and northwest, the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border, sharing it with, and the United States can and do produce uniform legislation on some topics, does not change the separate status of the States, Canadian provinces The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second largest country. The major difference between a Canadian province and a territory is that provinces are states that receive their power and authority directly from the Constitution Act, 1867, whereas territories derive their mandates and powers from the federal, and U.S. States A U.S. state is any one of 50 subnational entities of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government . Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. However, state citizenship is very flexible, and no government approval is required to. Dicey and Morris (p26) list the separate States comprising the British Isles The term derives from the adjective British and the plural of the noun isle. In classical Latin the plural term Britannicae insulae, was rarely used, though the singular Britannia insula was used denoting Great Britain only. In Old English the term Breotone ealond 'Britain's islands' dates to the 10th century: "England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, [Hern] and Sark. . . is a separate country in the sense of the conflict of laws, though not one of them is a State known to public international law." But this may be varied by statute. The United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border, sharing it with is one State for the purposes of the Bills of Exchange Act 1882, and Great Britain Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest in Europe. With a population of approximately 58.9 million people, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Ireland is to its west, and it is surrounded by over 1000 smaller islands and islets is a single State for the purposes of the Companies Act 1985. Beale defines "State" as follows (at § 2.1/2.5)

The civilized portion of the earth is divided up into certain units of territory in each of which a particular law proper to that territory alone prevails, and that territory is for legal purposes a unit.

§ 2.2. What Determines the State. – It has been seen that the existence of separate legal units within the dominions of a single sovereign is a fact, the result of historical accidents.

The use of the word "State" for this purpose is not universally accepted. Some countries and individual authors use "country", "territorial unit", "law unit" or "law district", e.g. in the Australian federation, each State and territory is a law district (see Laurie v Carroll (1958) 98 CLR 310 at 331, per Dixon CJ.. Williams and Webb JJ. Because the lex patriae choice of law rule may select the law of a country that contains more than one legal system, there must be rules to determine which of the several possible laws might apply (e.g. a reference to the law of the United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the is actually a reference to one of the U.S. States A U.S. state is any one of 50 subnational entities of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government . Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. However, state citizenship is very flexible, and no government approval is required to). A suparanational Supranationalism is a method of decision-making in multi-national political communities, wherein power is transferred to an authority broader than governments of member states. Because decisions in some supranational structures are taken by majority votes, it is possible for a member-state in those unions to be forced by the other member-states to example of an approach to this situation is contained in Article 19 of the Rome Convention In Conflict of Laws, the Rome Convention is the Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations and it opened for signature in Rome, Italy on 19 June 1980. The intention is to create at least a harmonised if not a unified choice of law system in contracts within the European Union on Contractual Obligations:

States with more than one legal system

1. Where a State comprises several territorial units each of which has its own rules of law in respect of contractual obligations, each territorial unit shall be considered as a country for the purposes of identifying the law applicable under this Convention.
2. A State within which different territorial units have their own rules of law in respect of contractual obligations shall not be bound to apply this Convention to conflicts solely between the laws of such units.

Discussion

For the purposes of disciplines such as geography Geography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes (276-194 B.C.). Four historical traditions in geographical research are the spatial analysis of natural and, politics Politics is a process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. It consists of "social relations involving authority or power" and refers to the, economics Economics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek οἰκονομία from οἶκος (oikos, "house") + νόμος (nomos, "custom" or "law"), hence "rules of the house(hold)". Current economic and sociology Sociology is a branch of the social sciences that uses systematic methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, sometimes with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare. Its subject matter ranges from the micro level of face-, it is appropriate to consider the world as divided into countries and, because it is of little significance in those disciplines, simply to add that some of these countries may be federated or otherwise divided into regions In most regions, region is a geographical term that is used in various ways among the different branches of geography. In general, a region is a medium-scale area of land or water, smaller than the whole areas of interest , and larger than a specific site. A region may be seen as a collection of smaller units (as in "the New England states& or provinces A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state. The focus is on the broad cultural Culture is a term that has different meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions. However, the word "culture" is most commonly used in three basic senses: patterns of political Politics is a process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. It consists of "social relations involving authority or power" and refers to the allegiance An allegiance is a duty of fidelity said to be owed by a subject or a citizen to his/her state or sovereign that arise by virtue of citizenship Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities. "Active citizenship" is the philosophy that citizens should work towards the betterment of their community through economic participation, public service, volunteer work, and other such efforts to improve life for all citizens. In this and nationality Nationality is the relationship between a person and their state of origin, culture, association, affiliation and/or loyalty. Nationality affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state, e.g. the so-called social contract Social contract describes a broad class of theories that try to explain the ways in which people form states and/or maintain social order. The notion of the social contract implies that the people give up some rights to a government or other authority in order to receive or maintain social order is that the State, in its nontechnical sense, will defend the interests of its citizens in return for the loyalty of its citizens.

The power to make law is an aspect of sovereignty Sovereignty is the right to exercise, within a specific territory of a kingdom or a nation-state, the highest authority by the law. It is an important part of the three main political perspectives of realism, rationalism, and internationalism, as these three theories differ most in their views on sovereignty. Sovereignty has existed throughout, but it does not follow that the law is the same throughout a single sovereign's territory. Differences may arise in two ways:

• as new territory is added to old, or as two countries are combined under a single sovereign (e.g. German reunification German reunification took place twice after 1945: first in 1957, the Saarland was permitted to join the Federal Republic of Germany, and again on 3 October 1990, when the five re-established states of the German Democratic Republic (GDR / East Germany) joined the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG / West Germany), and Berlin was united into a single), the laws of the formerly separate units continue distinct unless and until the sovereign assimilates one into the other. Beale offers this example at § 2.2:

"...when Hawaii The State of Hawaii ( /həˈwaɪ.iː/ or /həˈwaɪʔiː/ in English; Hawaiian: Mokuʻāina o Hawaiʻi) is a state in the United States, located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959, making it was annexed to the United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the it remained a separate legal unit; but when Wales Wales /ˈweɪlz/ (Welsh: Cymru; pronounced /ˈkəmrɨ/ (help·info)) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union. Wales has a population estimated at three million and is officially bilingual, with both Welsh was conquered by England England /ˈɪŋɡlənd/ is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population, while its mainland territory occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain. England is bordered by Scotland to the north, Wales to the west and the North Sea, Irish Sea, Celtic Sea, it became a part of the new legal unit, England"; and

• when new law is to be made, the sovereign may legislate for only part of the territories either because the territory has been divided into separate units, each with their own legislative bodies, or because a single legislative body limits a new law to only a portion of the territory.

Hence, the extent of territory through which a given law applies is a political rather than a legal question, more often than not, the result of historical accidents involving the division or annexation Annexation is the legal incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity (either adjacent or non-contiguous). Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities. It can also imply a certain measure of coercion, expansionism or unilateralism of territory, conquest The right of conquest is the purported right of a conqueror to territory taken by force of arms. It was sometimes considered a principle of international law until the early 20th century and colonisation Colonization occurs whenever any one or more species populate an area. The term, which is derived from the Latin colere, "to inhabit, cultivate, frequent, practice, tend, guard, respect," originally related to humans. However, 19th century biogeographers dominated the term to describe the activities of birds, bacteria, or plant species, federation A federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterised by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central (federal) government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states is typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of and decentralisation, all of which affect the extent of territory within which a single law prevails. In the U.S., for example, the relationship between State and federal law reflects the evolving debate between local and national interests and their respective claims to be supreme.

But in these more modern times, it is highly relevant to consider the significance of separate legal systems, particularly if the application of those systems would produce different results on the same set of facts. For example, in some parts of the world, one person may acquire multiple spouses or a spouse of the same biological sex. If such a marriage In conflict of laws, the issue of marriage has assumed increasing public policy significance in a world of increasing multi-ethnic, multi-cultural community existence is validly created in one State, should it cease to be valid if the family travel to another State on holiday? Similarly, if a company A corporation is a legal entity separate from the persons that own it. In British tradition it is the term designating a body corporate, where it can be either a corporation sole or a corporation aggregate (involving more persons). In American and, increasingly, international usage, the term denotes a body corporate formed to conduct business, and is created with certain capacities The capacity of both natural and artificial persons determines whether they may make binding amendments to their rights, duties and obligations, such as getting married or merging, entering into contracts, making gifts, or writing a valid will. Capacity is an aspect of status and both are defined by a person's personal law: under one law, should its capacities change if it seeks to trade in another law area? Social mobility is now the norm and trade across different markets is a vital part of the world's economic system. These and many other questions can only be answered by recognising the potential conflicts between State laws, and producing formalised systems to reconcile them. The issue is where these systems should be located.

Public International Law exists to provide a framework within which the relationship between sovereign nation States can be regulated. It provides a system of contract called treaties A treaty is an agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely sovereign states and international organizations. A treaty may also be known as: agreement, protocol, covenant, convention, exchange of letters, etc. Regardless of the terminology, all of these international agreements under international law are and offers systems to resolve disputes over territorial boundaries, access to the high seas, etc. But, it is a supranational Supranationalism is a method of decision-making in multi-national political communities, wherein power is transferred to an authority broader than governments of member states. Because decisions in some supranational structures are taken by majority votes, it is possible for a member-state in those unions to be forced by the other member-states to system and, as such, it has no direct effect on the municipal laws unless each nation waives its sovereignty. Hence, although the Hague Conference on Private International Law The Hague Conference on Private International Law is the preeminent organisation in the area of private international law makes recommendations, it is for each State to develop its own laws to address and resolve actual conflicts of outcome (although, in the U.S., it is acknowledged that the American Law Institute has devised federal guidelines covering some aspects of the subject). These municipal law systems are termed Private International Law or Conflict of Laws, and fall into four sections:

1. jurisdiction: forum shopping can be a problem and it is necessary for litigants to demonstrate a real connection between their dispute and the court invited to adjudicate;
2. characterisation in which the court allocates the causes of action to their appropriate legal classification subject to any issues of public policy;
3. choice of law: where the result will be different depending on which law is applied, clear and consistent rules must be applied to decide which competing law(s) should be applied (including the issue of renvoi);
4. the chosen law(s) (the lex causae) should be applied: this is not straightforward because the court in one State is being asked to give extraterritorial effect to another State's laws, thereby making its own laws inapplicable (and, arguably, breaching sovereignty).

See also

• Nationality
• State

References

• Beale, Joseph H. A Treatise on the Conflict of Laws. [1]
• Dicey & Morris. (1993) The Conflict of Laws 12th edition. London: Sweet & Maxwell Ltd. (pp26/30) ISBN 0-420-48280-6
• McClean, David. (2000). Morris: The Conflict of Laws. London: Sweet & Maxwell Ltd. ISBN 0-421-66160-7

Categories: Conflict of laws | International law | Political science

See Also:

• State (Law)
• Law
• Roman Law
• Canon Law
• Welsh Law

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