Anglo-Indian, Anglo-Turkish, Anglo-Chinese? The making and unmaking of the hyphenated domicile in private international law

In the late eighteenth century, courts developed the concept of an ‘Anglo-Indian domicile’ to categorise individuals of European descent who resided in India. Although domiciled in India, such persons were subject to English law as members of a broader community of European British subjects. Other forms of ‘hyphenated’ domicile were articulated in the late nineteenth century in places where Britain exercised extraterritorial jurisdiction, including the ‘Anglo-Turkish domicile’ in the Ottoman empire and the ‘Anglo-Chinese domicile’ in China. In this article, I explore how the balance between physical residence in territory and membership of a broader community inherent in the concept of the hyphenated domicile was critical to the project of imperial ordering.