Chapter 1—Codification

Division 1

1.1 Codification

The only offences against laws of the Commonwealth are those offences created by, or under the authority of, this Code or any other Act.

Part I—Preliminary
8 Refusal of assistance
(2) A request by a foreign country for assistance under this Act may be refused if, in the opinion of the Attorney General:
(b) both of the following subparagraphs are satisfied:
(i) the request relates to a foreign order in relation to an offence;
(ii) an act or omission constituting the offence, had the act or omission occurred in Australia, would not have constituted an offence against Australian law at the time at which the request was received; or

An Act to provide for the Trial and Punishment of War Criminals#

Part II—Interpretation

6 Serious crimes

(1) An act is a serious crime if it was done in a part of Australia and was, under the law then in force in that part, an offence, being:

An Act to provide for the Trial and Punishment of War Criminals#

Part II—Interpretation

6 Serious crimes

(2) In determining for the purposes of subsection (1) whether or not an act was, under the law in force at a particular time in a part of Australia, an offence of a particular kind, regard shall be had to any defence under that law that could have been established in a proceeding for the offence.

An Act to provide for the Trial and Punishment of War Criminals#

Part II—Interpretation

6 Serious crimes

(3) An act is a serious crime if:

(a) it was done at a particular time outside Australia; and

(b) the law in force at that time in some part of Australia was such that the act would, had it been done at that time in that part, be a serious crime by virtue of subsection (1).

An Act to provide for the Trial and Punishment of War Criminals#

Part III—War crimes

9 War crime to be indictable offence

(3) For the purposes of an offence against subsection (1), absolute liability applies to the following physical elements of circumstance of the offence:

(a) if subsection 6(1) applies—that the relevant act was, under the law in force at the relevant time in the relevant part of Australia, an offence mentioned in that subsection;

(b) if subsection 6(3) applies—that the law in force at the relevant time in some part of Australia was such that the relevant act would, had it been done at that time in that part, have been a serious crime under subsection 6(1).

An Act to amend the War Crimes Act 1945

5. Sections 3 to 14, inclusive, of the Principal Act are repealed and the following section and Parts are substituted:
...

"(2) In determining for the purposes of subsection (1) whether or not an act
was, under the law in force at a particular time in a part of Australia, an
offence of a particular kind, regard shall be had to any defence under that
law that could have been established in a proceeding for the offence."

"(3) An act is a serious crime if:

(a) it was done at a particular time outside Australia; and

(b) the law in force at that time in some part of Australia was such that the act would, had it been done at that time in that part, be a serious crime by virtue of subsection (1)."