4. Particular ecclesiastical laws are made for particular countries, or provinces, or dioceses, by the competent authority, and bind all subjects living within the territories in question. One is subject to local law by having a domicile or quasi- domicile in the territory for which the law is made. To constitute a domicile in ecclesiastical law, two conditions are required. The person domiciled must have taken up his abode in a parish, or quasi-parish, or at least in a diocese, vicariate apostolic, or prefecture apostolic; and this abode must be joined either with the intention of perpetually remaining there, if they are not called away, or with the actual dwelling there for ten years.
A quasi- domicile is acquired by taking up his abode in the place as above, joined with the intention of remaining there for the greater part of a year if not called away, or with the actual dwelling there for the greater part of a year.
A domicile and a quasi- domicile are lost by those who have them leaving their abode with the intention of not returning there; but wives always retain the domicile of their husbands unless they are lawfully separated from them, and minors that of their guardians (Can. 13, 92, 93, 95).
Whoever, then, resides in a place, having therein a domicile or quasi- domicile is subject to the particular laws of that place. Contracts, too, are governed by the law of the place where they are made, and whoever commits a crime is amenable to the law of the country where it is committed.
While outside the limits of the territory in which one is domiciled, there is no obligation to obey the particular laws of that territory, for the law is territorial and does not bind beyond the limits of the territory for which it was made.
A stranger (peregrinus), or one who has a domicile in another place, but at present is staying elsewhere, is not bound by the particular laws of the place where he is staying; for he is not subject to their authority by having either a domicile or a quasidomicile in the place. And so, if an English Catholic happened to be in Dublin on the feast of St Patrick, which is kept there as a day of obligation, he would not be bound to hear Mass; nor would a Dublin man who happened to be staying on that day in England. However, a stranger staying in a place where the common law of the Church is observed is bound to act according to its provisions, though there may be a dispensation from its observance in the place where he has his domicile. And so an English Catholic staying in Rome should abstain from flesh meat on Saturday as well as on Friday in Ember
