Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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EXTRADITION (REPUBLIC OF CROATIA) REGULATIONS 2003 2003 NO. 266

Section 55 of the Extradition Act 1988 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters that are required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or that are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act. An 'extradition country' is defined in section 5 of the Act as including a country that is declared by the regulations to be an extradition country. Paragraph (c) of that definition provides that an extradition country also means any foreign state to which the former Extradition Act applied, until the regulations declare that paragraph (c) does not apply in relation to that foreign state.

Paragraph 11(1)(a) of the Act provides that regulations may state that the Act applies in relation to a specified extradition country subject to such limitations, conditions, exceptions or qualifications as are necessary to give effect to a bilateral extradition treaty between Australia and that country, being a treaty a copy of which is set out in the regulations.

The Regulations give effect in Australian domestic law to the Treaty between the United Kingdom and Servia for the Mutual Extradition of Fugitive Criminals done at Belgrade on 6 December 1900 (the 1900 Treaty). Australia and the Republic of Croatia recognised continuing obligations under this inherited treaty by an exchange of notes in September 1996.

The Regulations declare that Croatia is an extradition country, and set out a copy of the 1900 Treaty.

Paragraph (c) of the definition of 'extradition country' in the Act is designed to give effect to inherited treaties such as the 1900 Treaty. However, the legal position of successor states such as Croatia under the Act is not clear. The Regulations clarify the status of Croatia as an extradition country and ensure that Australia can comply with its existing international obligations.

Under the 1900 Treaty, extradition to Croatia will not take place unless the evidence provided is sufficient according to Australia's laws to justify the fugitive's committal for trial.

The Regulations commence on gazettal.