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ADMIRALTY ACT 1988 - SECT 22

Service and arrest out of jurisdiction

  (1)   Subject to subsection   ( 4):

  (a)   initiating process in a proceeding commenced as an action in rem in the Federal Court may be served on a ship or other property; and

  (b)   a ship or other property may be arrested in such a proceeding;

at any place within Australia , including a place within the limits of the territorial sea of Australia .

  (2)   Subject to subsection   ( 4), initiating process in a proceeding commenced as an action in rem in a court of a State or a Territory may be served on a ship or other property:

  (a)   if, at a time when the process was effective for service, the ship or property was within the locality within which the court may exercise jurisdiction--at any place within Australia, including a place within the limits of the territorial sea of Australia; or

  (b)   in any case--at any place within the State or Territory, including a place within the limits of the territorial sea of Australia that is adjacent to the State or Territory.

  (3)   Subject to subsection   ( 4), in a proceeding commenced as an action in rem in a court of a State or Territory, a ship or other property may be arrested at any place within Australia , including a place within the limits of the territorial sea of Australia .

  (4)   Where the arrest of a foreign ship, or of cargo on board a foreign ship, would be inconsistent with a right of innocent passage that is being exercised by the ship, this Act does not authorise the service of process on the ship or the arrest of the ship or cargo.

  (5)   In this section:

"innocent passage" has the meaning it has under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea done at Montego Bay on 10   December 1982.

Note:   For the Convention on the Law of the Sea see Schedule   1 to the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973 .


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