✨ Legislative Provisions
505
in respect of seizures for breach of the revenue, customs, trade, or navigation laws, or of the laws relating to the abolition of the slave trade, or to the capture and destruction of pirates and piratical vessels, or any other jurisdiction now lawfully exercised by any such Court; or any jurisdiction now lawfully exercised by any other Court within Her Majesty’s dominions.
As to matters arising beyond limits of Colony.
- The jurisdiction of the Vice-Admiralty Courts, except where it is expressly confined by this Act to matters arising within the possession in which the Court is established, may be exercised, whether the cause of right of action has arisen within or beyond the limits of such possession.
Her Majesty empowered to establish and alter Rules and Tables of Fees.
- Her Majesty may, by Order in Council, from time to time establish rules touching the practice to be observed in the Vice-Admiralty Courts, as also tables of the fees to be taken by the Officers and Practitioners thereof for all Acts to be done therein, and may repeal and alter the existing and all future rules and tables of fees, and establish new rules and tables of fees, in addition thereto, or in lieu thereof.
Rules and Tables of Fees to be laid before the House of Commons.
- A copy of any rules or tables of fees which may at any time be established shall be laid before the House of Commons within three months from the establishing thereof, or if Parliament shall not be then sitting, or if the session shall terminate within one month from that date, then within one month after the commencement of the next session.
To be entered in the Records of the Courts.
- The rules and tables of fees in force in any Vice-Admiralty Court shall, as soon as possible after they have been received in the British possession in which the Court is established, be entered by the Registrar in the public books or records of the Court, and the books or records in which they are so entered shall, at all reasonable times, be open to the inspection of the practitioners and suitors in the Court.
To be hung up in Court, &c.
- A copy of the rules and tables of fees in force in any Vice-Admiralty Court shall be kept constantly hung up in some conspicuous place as well in the Court as in the office of the Registrar.
Established Fees to be the only Fees taken.
- The fees established for any Vice-Admiralty Court shall, after the date fixed for them to come into operation, be the only fees which shall be taken by the officers and practitioners of the Court.
Taxation may be revised by the High Court of Admiralty.
- Any person who shall feel himself aggrieved by the charges of any of the practitioners in any Vice-Admiralty Court, or by the taxation thereof by the officers of the Court, may apply to the High Court of Admiralty of England to have the charges taxed, or the taxation thereof revised.
Registrar may administer Oaths.
- The Registrar of any Vice-Admiralty Court shall have power to administer oaths in relation to any matter depending in the Court; and any person who shall wilfully swear falsely in any proceeding before the Registrar, or before any other person authorized to administer oaths in the Court, shall be deemed guilty of perjury, and shall be liable to all the penalties attaching to wilful and corrupt perjury.
As to the hearing of Cross Causes.
- If a cause of damage by collision be instituted in any Vice-Admiralty Court, and the defendant institute a cross cause in respect of the same collision, the Judge may, on application of either party, direct both causes to be heard at the same time and on the same evidence; and if the ship of the defendant in one of the causes has been arrested, or security given by him to answer judgment: but the ship of the defendant in the other cause cannot be arrested, and security has not been given to answer judgment therein, the Court may, if it think fit, suspend the proceedings in the former cause until security has been given to answer judgment in the latter cause.
No Appeal save from Final Sentence or Order.
- The appeal from a decree or order of a Vice-Admiralty Court lies to Her Majesty in Council; but no appeal shall be allowed save by permission of the Judge, from any decree or order not having the force or effect of a definitive sentence or final order.
Appeal to be made within six months.
- The time for appealing from any decree or order of a Vice-Admiralty Court shall, notwithstanding any existing enactment to the contrary, be limited to six months from the date of the decree or order appealed from; and no appeal shall be allowed where the petition of appeal to Her Majesty shall not have been lodged within that period.
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✨ LLM interpretation of page content
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Detailed statement of the reasons for the various clauses of the Vice-Admiralty Courts Act
(continued from previous page)
🏛️ Governance & Central Administration30 June 1863
Vice-Admiralty Courts, Act of Parliament, Clauses, Statement
Otago Provincial Gazette 1863, No 276