Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated ActsThe Commonwealth and the States have agreed to a cooperative scheme to apply the criminal law of the States extraterritorially in the areas adjacent to the coast of Australia .
Under the scheme, the criminal law of each State is to apply in the area adjacent to the State:
(a) for a distance of 12 nautical miles from the baseline for the State--by force of the law of the State; and
(b) beyond 12 nautical miles up to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the baseline for the State or the outer limit of the continental shelf (whichever is the greater distance)--by force of the law of the Commonwealth.
Responsibility for administering criminal justice in the area covered by the scheme will be divided between the Commonwealth and the States under the scheme and an intergovernmental agreement.
The purposes of this Act are:
(a) to give legal force to the scheme (so far as it depends on the legislative power of the Commonwealth) and to provide for consequential vesting of judicial and other powers; and
(b) to provide for the application of Australian criminal law in certain cases beyond the area covered by the scheme.
The Parliament of Australia therefore enacts: