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Dina d'malkhuta dina (alternative spelling: dina de-malkhuta dina) (Imperial Aramaic: דִּינָא דְּמַלְכוּתָא דִּינָא, lit. 'the law of the Government is law', or "the law of the land is the law") is a principle in Jewish religious law that the civil law of the country is binding upon the Jewish inhabitants of that country, and, in certain cases, is to be preferred to Jewish law. The concept of dina de-malkhuta dina is similar to the concept of conflict of laws in other legal systems. It appears in at least twenty-five places in the Shulchan Arukh.[1]
The principle of dina d'malkhuta dina means that, for Jews, obedience to the civil law of the country in which they live is viewed as a religiously mandated obligation and disobedience is a transgression, according to Jewish law. This general principle is subject, however, to the qualifications that the government enacting the law must be one which is recognized by Jewish law as having legitimacy; the law must apply equitably to all the inhabitants, Jewish and non-Jewish alike; and the law must not contravene the spirit of the laws derived from the Torah even if a particular regulation may be contrary to a provision of Jewish law.[2] Whenever a state law infringes upon a prohibition (Hebrew: איסור) outlined in the Torah, or else infringes upon a permitted thing (Hebrew: היתר) in the Torah, the laws of Dina d'malkhuta dina do not apply.[3][4]