DOMAT, or Daumat, Jean (1625-1696), a celebrated French jurisconsult, born at Clermont in Auvergne, on the 30th November 1625; He was closely in sympathy with the Port-Royalists, was intimate with Pascal, and at the death of that celebrated philosopher was intrusted with his private papers. He is principally known from his elaborate legal digest, in four volumes 4to, under the title of Lois Civiles dans leur Ordre Naturel Suivies du Droit Publique (1689),—an undertaking for which Louis XIV. settled on him a pension of two thousand livres. This is one of the most important works on the science of law that France has produced. Domat endeavours to found all law upon ethical or religious principles, his motto being L'homme est fait par Dieu et pour Dieu. An English translation of the Lois Civiles by Strahan, was published in 1722, and passed through several editions. Besides the Lois Civiles, Domat made in Latin a selection of the most common laws in the collections of Justinian. This work, however, did not appear until after his death, when it was published separately (Paris, 1700, Amsterdam, 1703) under the title of Legum Delectus, and was subsequently appended to the Lois Civiles. It was translated into English by Strahan. Domat died at Paris on the 14th March 1696.

See in the Journal des Savants for 1843 several papers on Domat by Victor Çóusin, giving much information not otherwise accessible.