State (law)

State has several meanings in law

Conflict of laws

Preliminiaries

1. in private international law and conflict of laws, State can refer to a well-defined jurisdiction, with its own set of laws and courts. This jurisdiction may either be a sovereign independent State, or a part (State, province, territory, etc.) of such a State.
2. in public international law, State most commonly refers to a sovereign state which is a direct subject of international law.

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, 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 through properly constituted courts.

The usage of the term "State" rather than nation and country 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)).