estate or immovables (when lex situs applies) renvoi unknown legal institutions law of nationality (when lex patriae applies) international treaties Process The court is required to analyse the pleadings prepared by the parties and to assign each component element to the most appropriate juridical concept or category. The rules of any given system of law are arranged under different categories, addressing procedure, status, contract, tort, divorce, nullity etc. For each category, there is one or more choice of law rules. Thus, for example, all questions as to the status of a person before a court (a minor or adult, legitimate, legitimated or illegitimate, married or not, mentally incapacitated or not, bankrupt or not etc.) will all be governed by the person's personal law, the law of nationality (the lex patriae) or habitual residence in a civil law state, or the law of domicile (the lex domicilii) in a common law state. In English law, the complete application of Characterisation is limited in commercial and civil matters by the Rome I and Rome II Regulations which provides a framework for categorisation of said matters within the European Union regime. English common law characterisation has resultantly become limited to all matters which do not fall within Rome Regulations (matters which are not civil and commercial matters). This includes matters of property and marriage. Staughton LJ Macmillan Inc v Bishopsgate Investment Trust sets out three stages This means that in England, the specific legal problem will be governed by the law of the connecting factors. The leading text of Dicey & Morris formulates the question, using the example of the constitution of a corporation in the following manner: Thus, the category, which is determined by understanding the substantive question at hand, is used to identify a relevant connecting factor. The first stage must be used to determine the "character" of the claim (hence characterisation). This is not necessarily the name of the action but the type. i.e. Not necessarily conversion but it is a matter relating to ownership of personal property. Lord Mance in Raiffeisen Zentral Bank expressed caution with relation to allowing the rules to control decision and emphasised the importance of determining the core matter which is sought to be determined. In the case of MacMillan, it was whether the parties were bona fide purchasers for value without notice. This The second and third stages of this test are determined by