Word.ws English Dictionary

renvoi

renvoi noun: a situation in which a court, tasked with deciding which state's law should apply to a case, decides to apply the law of the forum, based on the determination that a court from another involved state would also apply the law of the forum.

Noun

renvoi (countable and uncountable, plural renvois)

  1. A situation in which a court, tasked with deciding which state's law should apply to a case, decides to apply the law of the forum, based on the determination that a court from another involved state would also apply the law of the forum.
    • As has been shown, the renvoi, if logically carried out, involves a perpetual deadlock. But both England and America try the validity of a will of personalty by the law of the testator's last domicil.1908, Edwin Hale Abbot, Is the Renvoi a Part of the Common Law?, page 8
    • The application of renvoi in matters of personal status, family relationships and succession involves mainly conflicts between the national law and the law of the domicile, but it may also comprise a renvoi from the personal law to the lex rei sitae, notably in matters of matrimonial property and...1991, K. Zweigert, K. Drobnig, International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law, →ISBN, page 22
  2. Cross-reference in text; a sign that refers to something introduced earlier in a text.
    • In Jakobson's much simplified version of semiosis (1980:11, 22), a model M, a cabbage, could be said to function as a renvoi to the thing T, a king, and this referral could, by virtue of an effective similarity, be iconic (after all, as Mossis [1971:273] taught us, "Iconcity is . . . a matter of...1991, Myrdene Anderson, Floyd Merrell, On Semiotic Modeling, →ISBN, page 331
    • The description would be inexact because it gives figure to an essential play of return (renvoi).2003, Jeffrey Bloechl, Religious Experience and the End of Metaphysics, →ISBN, page 87
  3. (obsolete) A return.
    • Touching the first promise, to make him glorius; if to suffer a neighboring Nation to demand and obtaine what they pleased of him; if to breake capitulation of peace with a great forreigne Prince by the renvoy of the Capuchins, and divers other Acts; … if this be make a rich King, then is our King...1643, James Howell, A discourse, or parly, continued betwixt Partricius and Peregrine (upon their landing in France) touching the civill wars of England and Ireland, page 21

Forms of renvoi

pluralrenvois

Origin of renvoi

From French renvoi.

Questions about renvoi

What does renvoi mean?
Renvoi means a situation in which a court, tasked with deciding which state's law should apply to a case, decides to apply the law of the forum, based on the determination that a court from another involved state would also apply the law of the forum.
What part of speech is renvoi?
Renvoi is a noun.
What is the plural of renvoi?
The plural of renvoi is renvois.

Words near renvoi in the dictionary

  1. renversing
  2. renverst
  3. Renville
  4. Renville County
  5. Renvilles
  6. renvoi
  7. renvois
  8. Renvoize
  9. renvoy
  10. renvoyed
  11. renvoying

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: renvoi (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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