MOBILIA SEQUUNTUR PERSONAM
mobilia sequuntur personam (moh-bil-ee-[schwa] si-kw[schwa]n-t[schwa]r p[schwa]r-soh-n[schwa]m). [Latin] Int’l law. Movables follow the person — i.e., the law of the person. • This is the general principle that rights of ownership and transfer of movable property are determined by the law of the owner’s domicile. [Cases: Property 6; Taxation 98. C.J.S. Conflict of Laws §§ 66–70, 74, 77, 80; Taxation §§ 153–157, 160, 283.]
“The maxim mobilia sequuntur personam is the exception rather than the rule, and is probably to be confined to certain special classes of general assignments such as marriage settlements and devolutions on death and bankruptcy.” Handel v. Slatford, 1953 Q.B. 248, 257 (Eng. C.A.).
“Under the influence of Savigny many Continental systems in the mid-nineteenth century led the way for Anglo-American law in limiting the operation of the doctrine of mobilia sequuntur personam to universal assignments of movables, adopting for particular assignments the single principle of the lex situs of the movable.” R.H. Graveson, Conflict of Laws 457 (7th ed. 1974).
