Part 7 General Provisions

§ 68 Federal Jurisdiction

(1) The Federal Ministry of Justice shall rule on requests for mutual assistance by the Court and on the submission of requests to the Court for mutual assistance in agreement with the Federal Foreign Office and with other federal ministries whose departments are affected by the mutual assistance. If the authority responsible for providing mutual assistance belongs to a different federal ministry, that ministry takes the place of the Ministry of Justice; the decision shall be made in agreement with the Ministry of Justice and the Federal Foreign Office. The competent federal ministry pursuant to sentences 1 and 2 may transfer the exercise of their authority in individual cases to subordinate federal authorities. The federal government may transfer to a state government (Landesregierung) the exercise of its authority regarding decision on a request of the Court pursuant to Part 5 of this law and a request of the Court for mutual assistance in individual cases. The state governments may transfer the authority transferred pursuant to sentence 4 to another authority competent under state law.
(2) The Federal Ministry of Justice, in agreement with the Federal Foreign Office and with other highest federal authorities whose departments are affected, shall reach decisions in particular regarding:
1. referral of a situation pursuant to Article 14 para. 1of the Rome Statute,
2. notification pursuant to Article 18 para. 2 of the Rome Statute and the filing of an appeal pursuant to Article 18 para. 4 of the Rome Statute,
3. challenges pursuant to Article 19 para. 2 of the Rome Statute,
4. filing of an appeal pursuant to Article 19 para. 6 of the Rome Statute,
5. intervention in a proceeding pursuant to Article 72 para. 4 of the Rome Statute,
6. filing of an appeal pursuant to Article 82 para. 2 of the Rome Statute, or
7. request for waiver pursuant to Article 101 para. 2 of the Rome Statute.
(3) To the extent that consultations with the Court or notifications to the Court are foreseen in the Rome Statute or this law, para. 1 sentence 1 applies mutatis mutandis. If an office other than the office responsible in sentence 1 becomes aware of acts that under the Rome Statute or this law that makes consultations with or notifications to the Court necessary, that office shall promptly inform the office responsible pursuant to sentence 1 for the leadership of the consultation. To the extent there are certain circumstances of which the Court should be informed or its decision or agreement to be obtained, the office responsible pursuant to sentence 1 shall take the necessary steps therefore. In urgent matters, the office first aware of the circumstances creating a duty of notification or the acts making a decision or agreement of the Court necessary, shall inform the Court of the circumstances or acts beforehand.
(4) The authority of the Federal Office of Criminal Investigations over the transfer of data, bidding, and identification upon a request of the Court, are to be performed in accordance with § 14 para. 1 sentence 1 number 2 and § 15 para. 1-3 of the Law on the Federal Office of Criminal Investigations (Bundeskriminalamtgesetz).