Lex loci rei sitae - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The lex loci rei sitae is a doctrine which states that the law governing the transfer of title to property is dependent upon, and varies with, the location of the property for the purposes of the conflict of laws

Conflict of laws

Conflict of laws is a set of procedural rules that determines which legal system and which jurisdiction's applies to a given dispute...

. Conflict is the branch of public law

Public law

Public law is a theory of law governing the relationship between individuals and the state. Under this theory, constitutional law, administrative law and criminal law are sub-divisions of public law...

regulating all lawsuit

Lawsuit

A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...

s involving a "foreign" law element where a difference in result will occur depending on which laws are applied.

Explanation

When a case comes before a court

Court

A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...

and all the main features of the case are local, the court will apply the lex fori
Lex fori
Lex fori is a legal term used in the conflict of laws used to refer to the laws of the jurisdiction in which a legal action is brought...

, the prevailing municipal law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

, to decide the case. But if there are "foreign" elements to the case, the forum court may be obliged under the conflict of laws system to consider:

whether the forum court has jurisdiction
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...

to hear the case (see the problem of forum shopping
Forum shopping
Forum shopping is the informal name given to the practice adopted by some litigants to get their legal case heard in the court thought most likely to provide a favorable judgment...

);
it must then characterise
Characterisation (conflict)
In conflict of laws, characterisation is the second stage in the procedure to resolve a lawsuit involving a foreign law element. This process is described in English law as classification and as qualification in French law...

the issues, i.e. allocate the factual basis of the case to its relevant legal classes; and
then apply the choice of law
Choice of law
Choice of law is a procedural stage in the litigation of a case involving the conflict of laws when it is necessary to reconcile the differences between the laws of different legal jurisdictions, such as sovereign states, federated states , or provinces...

rules to decide which law is to be applied to each class.

The lex loci rei sitae is a choice of law rule applied to identify the lex causae

Lex causae

In the conflict of laws, lex causae is the law or laws chosen by the forum court from among the relevant legal systems to arrive at its judgement of an international or interjurisdictional case....

for cases involving title to, or the possession and use of personal property. In law

Law

, there are two types of property:

Real property is land or any permanent feature or structure above or below the surface. Ownership
Ownership
Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over property, which may be an object, land/real estate or intellectual property. Ownership involves multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different parties. The concept of ownership has...

of land is an aspect of the system of real property or realty in common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...

systems (immovables in civil law
Civil law (legal system)
Civil law is a legal system inspired by Roman law and whose primary feature is that laws are codified into collections, as compared to common law systems that gives great precedential weight to common law on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different...

systems and the conflict of laws).
All other property is considered personal property or personalty in common law systems (movables in civil law systems and the conflict of laws), and this property is either tangible or intangible, i.e. it is either physical property that can be touched like a computer, or it is an enforceable right like a patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

or other form of intellectual property.

Explanation

See also