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makes uniform or autonomous interpretation easy. Its conceptual components are
not tied with any legal system. Such a concept has not retained uniformity though.
De Steiger attributed a slight uncertainty to the concept of habitual residence
without trying to find its substance in connotations different from the 1961 Hague
Convention. He diminished the attribute of uncertainty of the content exclusively
in relation to protection of children.80 He explained the content of the concept of
habitual residence by means of a descriptive definition which observed the usage of
this linguistic constituent. Habitual residence should have been the effective centre
of the life of a child (le centre effectif de la vie du mineur).81
Despite the fact that the Hague Conference produced new international conventions
using the concept of habitual residence, none of them contained the definition.
If a question of habitual residence is a matter of pure facts, then the explanation
of the concept could seem to be useless.82 Of course, any concept, either legal or
factual, could be subject to definition.
3. The European Union Law: relation of ostensive and descriptive
definition of habitual residence
The law is a matter of language and its concepts are transferred from one form to
another.83 Regulation No 3/58 of the Council dated 25 September 1958 concerning
social security for migrant workers introduced in Art. 1 (h) a binding definition of
permanent residence. The definition explained the concept of permanent residence
with the aim of prescribing the content and usage in the Community law:
The ‘permanent residence’ means ‘the place where a person habitually resides’.
The definition as a generalised unit comprises definiendum and definiens. The
phrase of habitual residence does not appear on the right side in definiendum but on
the left side in definiens. Any occurrence of the definiendum can be replaced by an
occurrence of the definiens. And, conversely, any occurrence of the definiens can be
replaced by an occurrence of the definiendum.84 Obviously a simple definition places
semantic equality between permanent and habitual residence. It is linguistically
totally homogeneous. A definition includes similar, correlated words. However,
80 DE STEIGER, M. W. Rapport Explicatif. Actes et documents de la Neuvième session. Conferénce de
la Haye De droit international privé, 1961, Tome IV, p. 234. See the 1961 Convention concerning the
powers of authorities and the law applicable in respect of the protection of infants.
81 Ibid.
82 GRAVESON, R. H., NEWMAN, K. M. H., ANTON, A. E., and EDWARDS, D. M. The Eleventh
Session of the Hague Conference of Private International Law. The International and Comparative Law
Quarterly, 1969, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 620, 629.
83 KOSKENNIEMI, Martti. The Politics of International Law. Oxford and Oregon: Hart Publishing,
2011, p. 298.
84 GUPTA, Anil, ‚Definitions‘, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2015 Edition), ZALTA,
Edward N. (ed.), URL = >.