PART II
JURISDICTION
4. Application-
(1) This Act applies to all offences for which the offender may be proceeded against and tried in Samoa.
(2) This Act applies to all acts done or omitted in Samoa.
(3) Subject to subsection (4), no act done or omitted outside of Samoa is an offence unless it is an offence by virtue of any provision of this Act or of any other enactment.
(4) For the purpose of jurisdiction, where any act or omission forming part of any offence, or any event necessary to the completion of any offence, occurs in Samoa, the offence shall be deemed to be committed in Samoa, whether the person charged with the offence was in Samoa or not at the time of the act, omission, or event.
(5) The Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and the District Court shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine any matter for which this Act or any other law provides such court with jurisdiction irrespective of whether any act or omission or event occurs in Samoa or any other place.
5. Persons not to be tried in respect of things done outside of Samoa -
Subject to the provisions of section 6, no act done or omitted outside Samoa is an offence, unless it is an offence by virtue of any provision of this Act or of any other enactment.
6. Place of commission of offence -
For the purpose of jurisdiction, where any act or omission forming part of any offence, or any event necessary to the completion of any offence, occurs in Samoa, the offence shall be deemed to be committed in Samoa, whether the person charged with the offence was in Samoa or not at the time of the act, omission, or event.
7. Jurisdiction in respect of crimes on ships or aircraft beyond Samoa-
(1) This section applies to any act done or omitted beyond Samoa by any person:
(a) on board any Samoan registered ship; or
(b) on board any Samoan aircraft; or
(c) on board any ship or aircraft, if that person arrives in Samoa on that ship or aircraft in the course or at the end of a journey during which the act was done or omitted; or
(d) being a citizen of Samoa, on board any foreign ship (not being a ship to which he or she belongs) on the high seas; or
(e) being a Samoan citizen or a person ordinarily resident in Samoa, on board any aircraft provided that paragraph (c) does not apply where the act was done or omitted by a person, not being a citizen of Samoa, on any ship or aircraft for the time being used as a ship or aircraft of any of the armed forces of any country; or
(f) being a Samoan citizen or a person ordinarily resident in Samoa, on board any ship or aircraft as a servant or an officer of the Government of Samoa.
(2) Where any person does or omits any act to which this section applies, and that act or omission would, if it occurred within Samoa, be a crime under this Act or under any other enactment (whether that enactment was passed before or after the commencement of this Act), then, subject to the provisions of this Act and of that other enactment, he or she shall be liable on conviction as if the act or omission had occurred in Samoa: provided that where any proceedings are taken by virtue of the jurisdiction conferred by this section it shall be a defence to prove that the act or omission would not have been an offence under the law of the country of which the person charged was a national or citizen at the time of the act or omission, if it had occurred in that country.
(3) Where at any place beyond Samoa any person who belongs, or within three (3) months previously has belonged, to any Samoan registered ship does or omits any act, whether on shore or afloat, not being an act, or omission to which subsection (1) applies, and that act or omission would, if it occurred within Samoa, be a crime, then this section shall apply in respect of that act or omission in the same manner in all respects as if it had occurred on board a Samoan registered ship.
(4) This section shall be read subject to the provisions of section 221.
Territorial jurisdiction - national proceedings
EDIT.