Visiting Forces Act

Marginal note:Jurisdiction of service courts

• 6 (1) Subject to this Act, the service authorities and service courts of a visiting force may exercise within Canada in relation to members of that force and dependants all the criminal and disciplinary jurisdiction that is conferred on them by the law of the designated state to which they belong.

• Marginal note:Primary right to exercise jurisdiction

  (2) With respect to the alleged commission by a member of a visiting force of an offence respecting

  • (a) the property or security of the designated state,

  • (b) the person or property of another member of the visiting force or a dependant, or

  • (c) an act done or anything omitted in the performance of official duty,

  the service courts of the visiting force have the primary right to exercise jurisdiction.

• Marginal note:Previous trial by civil courts

  (3) Where a member of a visiting force or a dependant has been tried by a civil court and has been convicted or acquitted, the member or dependant may not be tried again within Canada for the same offence by a service court of that visiting force, but nothing in this subsection prevents that service court from trying within Canada a member of the visiting force or a dependant for any contravention of rules of discipline arising from an act or omission that constituted an offence for which the member or dependant was tried by a civil court.