EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Subject - Extradition Act 1988
Extradition (Republic of Argentina) Regulations 1989 No. 372
Section 55 of the Extradition Act 1988 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act. Paragraph 11(1)(a) of the Act provides that regulations may apply the Act to a specified extradition country to give effect to a bilateral extradition treaty.
On 6 October 1988, the Attorney-General signed a Treaty on Extradition between the Government of Australia and the Government of the Republic of Argentina (the Treaty). A copy of the English text of the Treaty is set out in the Schedule to the Extradition (Republic of Argentina) Regulations (the Regulations).
Article 21, paragraph 2, of the Treaty provides that the Treaty replaces and terminates, with regard to relations between Australia and the Republic of Argentina, the provisions of the treaty between Argentina and Great Britain for the Mutual Extradition of Fugitive Criminals signed at Buenos Aires on 22 May 1889.
Article 21, paragraph 1, of the Treaty provides for each Contracting Party to notify the other in writing of the accomplishment of the procedure required for the entry into force of the Treaty and for the Treaty to enter into force thirty days after the date of receipt of such notification. The Republic of Argentina has recently advised Australia that the processes necessary under its law to ratify the Treaty have been completed. Australia’s requirement for entry into force of the Treaty is the making of Regulations applying the Act to the Republic of Argentina subject to the Treaty.
Details of the Regulations are as follows:
Clause 1 is a citation provision.
Clause 2 provides for the Regulations to commence on 15 February 1990 (on the basis that the Republic of Argentina will be notified of the making of the Regulations thirty days beforehand in accordance with Article 21, paragraph 1 of the Treaty).
Clause 3 is an interpretation provision.
Clause 4 declares the Republic of Argentina to be an extradition country for the purposes of the Act.
Clause 5 applies the Act to the Republic of Argentina subject to the Treaty which is reproduced as a Schedule to the Regulations.