Criminal Jurisdiction Act, 1802
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION ACT 1802 | ||
CHAPTER LXXXV. | ||
An Act for the trying and punishing in Great Britain Persons holding publick Employments, for Offences committed abroad; and for extending the Provisions of an Act passed in the Twenty-first Year of the Reign of King James made for the Ease of Justices and others in pleading in Suits brought against them, to all Persons, either in or out of this Kingdom, authorized to commit to safe Custody. [22d June 1802.] | ||
11 Will. 3. c. 12. | ||
13 Geo. 3. c. 63. | ||
24 Geo. 3. sess. 2. c. 25. | ||
Offences committed by persons employed in any publick service abroad may be prosecuted in the Court of King’s Bench in England; and may be laid in Middlesex, and the offenders punished as if the offences had been committed in England. | ||
WHEREAS persons holding and exercising publick employments out of Great Britain often escape punishment for offences committed by them for want of courts having a sufficient jurisdiction in or by reason of their departing from the country or place where such offences have been committed, and that such persons cannot be tried in Great Britain for such offences as the law now stands, in as much as such offences cannot be laid to have been committed within the body of any county: And whereas it is therefore expedient that such and the like provisions as are contained in an Act passed in the eleventh and twelfth years of the reign of his late Majesty King William the Third, intituled “An Act to punish governors of plantations of this kingdom for crimes by them committed in the plantations,” and in an Act passed in the thirteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled “An Act for establishing certain regulations for the better management of the affairs of the East India Company, as well in India as in Europe,” and in an Act passed in the twenty-fourth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled “An Act for the better regulation and management of the affairs of the East India Company, and of the British possessions in India, and for establishing a court of judicature for the more speedy and effectual trial of persons accused of offences committed in the East Indies,” should be extended and applied to the punishment of such offenders: May it therefore please your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the King’s most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that, from and after the passing of this Act, if any person who now is, or heretofore has been, or shall hereafter be employed by or in the service of his Majesty, his heirs or successors, in any civil or military station, office, or capacity out of Great Britain, or shall heretofore have had, held, or exercised, or now has, holds, or exercises, or shall hereafter have, hold, or exercise any publick station, office, capacity, or employment, out of Great Britain, shall have committed, or shall commit, or shall have heretofore been, or is, or shall hereafter be guilty of any crime, misdemeanor, or offence, in the execution, or under colour, or in the exercise of any such station, office, capacity, or employment as aforesaid, every such crime, offence, or misdemeanor may be prosecuted or enquired of, and heard and determined in his Majesty’s Court of King’s Bench here in England, either upon an information exhibited by his Majesty’s attorney general, or upon an indictment found, in which information or indictment such crime, offence, or misdemeanor may be laid and charged to have been committed in the county of Middlesex, and all such persons so offending, and also all persons tried under any of the provisions of the said recited Act passed in the reign of King William aforesaid, or this Act, or either of them, for any offence, crime, or misdemeanor, and not having been before tried for the same out of Great Britain, shall, on conviction, be liable to such punishment as may, by any law or laws now in force, or any Act or Acts that may hereafter be passed, be inflicted for any such crime, misdemeanor, or offence committed in England, and shall also be liable, at the discretion of his Majesty’s Court of King’s Bench, to be adjudged to be incapable of serving his Majesty in any station, office, or capacity, civil or military, or of holding or exercising any publick employment whatever. |