Act · 1984 Revised Edition
Consular Relations Act
Consular relations with other countries and related court limitsOfficial textFrom Attorney General's Chambers, unchanged
s 2
This Act may be cited as the Consular Relations Act. Short title 3
Subject to section 3 and to subsection (2) of sec-tion 4, the provisions set out in the First Schedule (being
Articles or parts of Articles of the Vienna Convention on
Consular Relations signed in 1963) shall have the force of law in Brunei and shall for that purpose be construed in accordance with subsections (2) to (9) of this section.
Application of Vienna
Convention
In those provisions -
"authorities of the receiving State" shall be con-strued as including any police officer and any per-son exercising a power of entry to any premises under any act;
"grave crime" shall be construed as meaning any offence punishable (on a first conviction) with im-prisonment for a term that may extend to 5 years or with a more severe sentence;
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"national of the receiving State" shall be construed
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as meaning a citizen of Brunei.
The reference in paragraph 2 of Article 17 to any privileges and immunities accorded by customary interna~
tionallaw or by international agreements shall be construed as a reference to any privileges and immunities conferred in
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Brunei under the Diplomatic Privileges (Extension) Act.
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( 4) The references in Article 44 to matters con~
nected with the exercise of the functions of members of a consular post shall be construed as references to matters connected with the exercise of consular functions by consu-lar officers or consular employees.
For the purposes of Article 45 and that Article as applied by Article 58 a waiver shall be deemed to have been expressed by a State if it has been expressed by the head, or any person for the time being performing the functions of head, of the superintending diplomatic mission of that State or of the consular post concerned.
Articles 50, 51, 52, 54, 62 and 67 shall be con-strued as granting any privilege or immunity which they require to be grant~d.
The reference in Article 57 to the privileges and immunities provided in Chapter II shall be construed as referring to those provided in Section II of that Chapter.
The reference in Article 70 to the rules of inter-national law concerning diplomatic relations shall be con-strued as a reference to the provisions of the Diplomatic
Cap. 117
Privileges (Vienna Convention) Act.
The references in Article 71 to additional pri~
vileges and immunities that may be granted by the receiving
State or to privileges and immunities so far as these are granted by the receiving State shall be construed as referring
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Consular Relations to such privileges and immunities as may be specified by His
Majesty by an Order published in the Government Gazette.
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If it appears to His Majesty that the privileges and immunities accorded to a consular post of Brunei in a terri-tory of any State, or to persons connected with such a consu-lar post, are less than those conferred by this Act on a consular post of that State or on persons connected with such a consular post, His Majesty. may by Order withdraw such of the privileges and immunities so conferred from all or any of the consular posts of that State in Brunei or from such persons connected therewith as appears to His Majesty to be proper.
Where any agreement made;'whether before or after the commencement of this Act, between Brunei and any other State provides for according to consular posts and persons connected with them privileges and immunities not accorded to them by the other provisions of this Act, His
Majesty may by Order published in the Government Gazette exercise, with respect to the consular posts of that State in
Brunei and persons connected with them, the powers spe-cified in the Second Schedule so far as may be necessary to give effect to that Agreement.
Where any agreement made, whether before or after the commencement of this Act, between Brunei and any other State provides for according to consular posts and persons connected with them some but not all of the pri-vileges and immunities accorded to them by the other provi-sions of this Act, His Majesty may by Order in the Govern-ment Gazette provide for excluding, with respect to consular posts of that State in Brunei and persons connected with them, any of those privileges and immunities which are not provided for by the agreement.
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Restriction of privileges and immunities
s 5Agreements providing for additional or reduced pri-vileges and immunities
His Majesty may by Order published in the Govern-Civil jurisdic-tion concern-ment Gazette make provision for excluding or limiting the ing service on jurisdiction of any court in Brunei to entertain proceedings ~~~~~f~hip or
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Jurisdiction over offences committed on
~oard ship
Consular Relations relating to the remuneration or any contract of service of the master or commander or a member of the crew of any ship or aircraft belpnging to a State specified in the Order, ex-cept where a consular officer of that State has been notified of the intention to invoke the jurisdiction of that court and has not objected within such time as may be specified by or under the Order.
His Majesty may by Order published in the Gov-ernment Gazette make provision for securing that, where an offence is alleged to have been committed on board any ship by the master or a member of the crew and the ship belongs to a State specified in the Order, proceedings for the offence instituted otherwise that at the request or with the consent of a consular officer of that State are not entertained by any court in Brunei unless-
the offence is alleged to have been commit-ted by or against a person who is a citizen of
Brunei or against a person other than the master or a member of the crew; or
the offence is one involving the tranquillity or safety of a port, or the law relating to safety of
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life at sea, public health, oil pollution, wireless telegraphy, immigration or customs or is of any other description specified in the Order; or
the offence is one comprised in the defini-tion of "grave crime" in subsection (2) of section 2.
For the purposes of this section, an offence which affects the property of any person shall be deemed to have been committed against him.
For the purposes of this Section, any document purporting to be signed by or on behalf of a consular officer and stating that he has requested or consented to the institu-
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Consular Relations tion of any proceedings shall be sufficient proof of that fact unless the contrary is shown.
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His Majesty may by Order published in the Govern-ment Gazette designate any State for the purposes of this section; and where a State is so designated, a member of the crew of a ship belonging to that State who is detained in custody on board for a disciplinary offence shall not be deemed to be unlawfully detained.unless-
his detention is unlawful under the laws of that State or the conditions of detention are in-humane or unjustifiably severe; or
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there is reasonable cause for believing that his life or liberty will be endangered for reasons of race, nationality, political opinion or religion, in any country to which the ship is likely to go.
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For the purposes of section 5, 6 or 7, a ship, and for the purposes of section 5, an aircraft, shall be treated as belonging to a State in such circumstances as may be spe-cified by an order made under that section, and different circumstances may be so specified with respect to different
States and different classes of ship or aircraft.
A diplomatic agent or consular officer of any
State may, if authorised to do so under the laws of that
State, administer oaths, take affidavits and do notarial acts
required by a person for use in that State or underthelawsthereof;or
otherwise required by a national of that
State but not for use in Brunei except under the laws of some other country.
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Detention on board ship for disciplin-ary offences
Ship and air-craft belong-ing to a State
Right of di-plomatic agents and consular officers to administer oaths and do notorial acts in certain cases
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Evidence
Application of specified
Articles in the Vienna
Convention on Diploma-tic Relations 1961
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His Majesty may by Order published in the Gov-ernment Gazette exclude or restrict the provisions of subsec-tion (1) in relation to the diplomatic agents or consular officers of any State in Brunei if it appears to him that in any territory of that State diplomatic agents or consular officers of Brunei are not permitted to perform functions corres-ponding in nature and extent to those authorised by that subsection.
In this section "diplomatic agent" has the same meaning as in the Diplomatic Privileges (Vienna Conven-tion) Act.
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Where any question arises whether or not any person is entitled to any immunity or privileges under this Act, a certificate issued by the Minister stating any fact relating to that question shall be conclusive evidence of that fact.
s 11For the purposes of paragraphs 4, 5 and 6 of the
Second Schedule, paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the Third
Schedule (being Articles 29, 31, 32 paragraph 1 of Article 30
and Article 27 respectively of the Vienna Convention on
Diplomatic Relations signed in 1961) shall have the force of law in Brunei.
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