THE FOREIGN JURISDICTION ACT, 1890
Exercise of
foreign country.
53 AND 51 VICTORIA, CHAPTER 37
AN ACT TO CONSOLIDATE THE FOREIGN JURISDICTION ACTS
[4th AUGUST, 1890]
WHEREAS by treaty, capitulation grant, usage, sufferance, and other lawful means, Her Majesty the Queen has jurisdiction within divers foreign countries, and it is expedient to consolidate the Acts relating to the exercise of Her Majesty's jurisdiction out of Her dominions:
Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
1.--It is and shall be lawful for Her Majesty the Queen to hold, jurisdiction in exercise, and enjoy any jurisdiction which Her Majesty now has or may at any time hereafter have within a foreiga country in the same and as ample a manner as if Her Majesty had acquired that jurisdiction by the cession or conquest of territory.
Exercise of jurisdiction over British subjects in countries
without regular governments.
Validity of acts
2.--Where a foreign country is not subject to any government from whom Her Majesty the Queen might obtain jurisdiction in the manner recited by this Act, Her Majesty shall by virtue of this Act have jurisdic- tion over Her Majesty's subjects for the time being resident in or resort- ing to that country, and that jurisdiction shall be jurisdiction of Her Majesty in a foreign country within the meaning of the other provisions of this Act.
3. —Every act and thing done in pursuance of any jurisdiction of Her done in purse Majesty in a foreign country shall be as valid as if it had been done
according to the local law then in force in that country.
tion.
Evidence as to existence or
country.
4.--(1.) If in any proceeding, civil or criminal, in a Court in Her extent of juris- Majesty's dominions or held under the authority of Her Majesty, any diction in foreign question arises as to the existence or extent of any jurisdiction of Her Majesty in a foreign country, a Secretary of State shall, on the application of the Court, send to the Court within a reasonable time his decision on the question, and his decision shall for the purposes of the proceeding be final.
Power to extend enserments in First Schodule.
(2.) The Court shall send to the Secretary of State, in a document under the seal of the Court, or signel by a Judge of the Court, questions framed so as properly to raise the question, and sufficient answers to those questions shall be returned by the Secretary of State to th: Court, and those answers shall, on pro luction thereof, be conclusive evidence of the matters therein contained.
5.-(1.) It shall be lawful for Her Majesty the Queen in Council, if she thinks fit, by Order to direct that all or any of the enactments described in the First Schedule to this Act, or any enactments for the time being in force amen ling or substituted for the same, shall extend, with or with at any exceptions, adaptations, or modifications in the Order mentioned, to any foreign country in which for the time being Her Majesty has jurisdiction.