EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Subject - Extradition Act 1988
Extradition (Republic of Ecuador) Regulations 1990 No. 133
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.
A Treaty between the Government of Australia and the Government of the Republic of Ecuador (the Treaty) was signed on 13 October 1988. A copy of the English text of the Treaty is set out in the Schedule to the Extradition (Republic of Ecuador) Regulations (the Regulations).
Article 18, paragraph 2, of the Treaty provides that the Treaty replaces and terminates, with regard to relations between Australia and the Republic of Ecuador, the provisions of the Treaty between Ecuador and the United Kingdom for the Mutual Surrender of Fugitive Criminals done at Quito on 20 September 1880 and the Supplementary Convention to that Treaty done at Quito on 4 June 1934.
Article 18, 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 Ecuador 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 Ecuador 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 1 August 1990 (on the basis that the Republic of Ecuador will be notified of the making of the Regulations thirty days beforehand in accordance with Article 18, paragraph 1 of the Treaty).
Clause 3 is an interpretation provision.
Clause 4 declares the Republic of Ecuador to be an extradition country for the purposes of the Act.
Clause 5 applies the Act to the Republic of Ecuador subject to the Treaty which is reproduced as a Schedule to the Regulations.