Commonwealth Numbered Acts

FOREIGN EVIDENCE ACT 1994 No. 59 of 1994 - SECT 3

3.(1) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears:

"ASC" means the Australian Securities Commission;

"Australian court" means:

   (a)  the High Court; or

   (b)  a court exercising federal jurisdiction; or

   (c)  a court of a State or Territory; or

   (d)  a judge, justice or arbitrator under an Australian law; or

   (e)  a person or body authorised by an Australian law, or by consent of
        parties, to hear, receive and examine evidence; and, for the purposes
        of Part 6, includes a person or body authorised to take or receive
        evidence, whether on behalf of a court or otherwise and whether or not
        the person or body is empowered to require the answering of questions
        or the production of documents;

"Australian law" means a law (whether written or unwritten) of or in force in
the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory;

"civil proceeding" means a proceeding other than a criminal proceeding;

"Convention" means the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of
Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, a copy of the English text of which
is set out in the Schedule;

"criminal proceeding" means a prosecution for an offence and includes a
proceeding for the committal of a person for trial or sentence for an offence,
but does not include a prosecution for an offence that is a prescribed
taxation offence within the meaning of Part III of the
Taxation Administration  Act 1953 ;

"document" means any record of information, and includes:

   (a)  anything on which there is writing; and

   (b)  anything on which there are marks, figures, symbols or perforations
        having a meaning for persons qualified to interpret them; and

   (c)  anything from which sounds, images or writings can be reproduced with
        or without the aid of anything else; and

   (d)  a map, plan, drawing or photograph;

"examination" includes any proceeding that is for the taking of evidence of a
person conducted by the judicial authorities of a foreign country in relation
to a letter of request issued as a result of an order made by a superior court
under Part 2;

"foreign business authority" means a person or body that has, under a law of a
foreign country, functions relating to the administration or enforcement of a
law of that country that regulates, or relates to the regulation of, business
or persons engaged in business;

"foreign law" means a law (whether written or unwritten) of or in force in a
foreign country;

"foreign material" means:

   (a)  for the purposes of Part 3-the testimony of a person that:

        (i)    was obtained as a result of a request of a kind referred to in
               section 21; and

        (ii)   complies with the requirements of section 22; including any
               exhibit annexed to such testimony; and

   (b)  for the purposes of Part 4-the testimony of a person that:

        (i)    was obtained as a result of a request of a kind referred to in
               section 29; and

        (ii)   complies with the requirements of section 30; including any
               exhibit annexed to such testimony;

"foreign public document" means a document to which Article 1 of the
Convention applies, other than a document executed in a foreign country (if
any) that has objected to Australia's accession to the Convention;

"inferior court" means any of the following courts (other than a superior
court):

   (a)  a court of a State when exercising federal jurisdiction;

   (b)  subject to subsection (2), a court of a Territory (other than the
        Northern Territory);

   (c)  a court of the Northern Territory when exercising jurisdiction
        conferred or vested by an Act of the Parliament;

"related civil proceeding", in relation to a criminal proceeding, means any
civil proceeding arising from the same subject matter from which the criminal
proceeding arose, and, in particular, includes:

   (a)  a proceeding under the Proceeds of Crime Act 1987; or

   (b)  a proceeding under the Customs Act 1901; or

   (c)  a proceeding for the recovery of tax, or of any duty, levy or charge,
        payable to the Commonwealth;

"superior court" means:

   (a)  the High Court; or

   (b)  the Federal Court of Australia or the Family Court of Australia; or

   (c)  the Supreme Court of a State, or the Family Court of Western
        Australia, when exercising federal jurisdiction; or

   (d)  subject to subsection (2), the Supreme Court of a Territory (other
        than the Northern Territory); or

   (e)  the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory when exercising
        jurisdiction conferred or vested by an Act of the Parliament.

(2) On and after a day fixed by Proclamation:

   (a)  the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory ceases to be a
        superior court for the purposes of this Act except so far as it
        exercises jurisdiction conferred or vested by an Act of the
        Parliament; and

   (b)  any other court of the Australian Capital Territory ceases to be an
        inferior court for the purposes of this Act except so far as it
        exercises jurisdiction conferred or vested by an Act of the
        Parliament.