REPUBLIC OF NAURU

CUSTOM AND ADOPTED LAWS ACT 1971

(No. 11 of 1971)

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
Section

1. Short Title and commencement
2. Interpretation
3. Institutions, customs and usages of the Nauruans
4. English laws adopted generally
5. Adoption subject to Nauru jurisdiction and statutes
6. Certain English laws not adopted
7. Repeal of certain provisions of the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance 1922-1967
8. Amendment of the First Schedule to the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance 1922-1967
9. Amendment of the Second Schedule to the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance 1922-1967
10. Amendment of the Third Schedule to the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance 1922-1967
11. Repeal of the Merchant Shipping Ordinance 1924-1967

First Schedule -Parts of the statute law of England which shall not apply within Nauru

Second Schedule -Acts of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia deleted from the First Schedule to the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance 1922-1967

Third Schedule -Act of the State of Queensland deleted from the Second Schedule to the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance 1922-1967

Fourth Schedule -Ordinances of the Territory of Papua deleted from the Third Schedule to the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance 1922-1967

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AN ACT
To make better provision relating to the institutions, customs and usages of the Nauruans
and to adopted laws.

(Certified: 5th January, 1972)

Enacted by the Parliament of Nauru as follows:

SHORT TITLE AND COMMENCEMENT

1. This Act may be cited as the Custom and Adopted Laws Act 1971 and shall come into force on a date to be notified by the Minister in the Gazette.

INTERPRETATION

2. In this Act unless the context otherwise requires -

"Court" means any Court which may from time to time have jurisdiction within Nauru and any other Court which may from time to time have jurisdiction to entertain an appeal from a judgment, order or decision of any Court having jurisdiction within Nauru.

NAURUAN INSTITUTIONS, CUSTOMS AND USAGES

3. (1) The institutions, customs and usages of the Nauruans to the extent that they existed immediately before the commencement of this Act shall, save in so far as they may hereby or hereafter from time to time be expressly, or by necessary implication, abolished, altered or limited by any law enacted by Parliament, be accorded recognition by every Court and have full force and effect of law to regulate the following matters -

(a) title to, and interests in, land, other than any title or interest granted by lease or other instrument or by any written law not being an applied statute;

(b) rights and powers of Nauruans to dispose of their property, real and personal, inter vivos and by will or any other form of testamentary disposition;

(c) succession to the estates of Nauruans who die intestate; and

(d) any matters affecting Nauruans only.

(2) Any custom or usage by which -

(a) any person is, or may be, entitled or empowered to take or deal with the property of any other person without that person's consent; or

(b) any person is or may be entitled or empowered to deprive the parents of a child of its custody and control without their consent,

is hereby abolished.

ENGLISH LAWS ADOPTED

4. (1) Subject to the provisions of sections 3, 5 and 6 of this Act, the common law and the statutes of general application, including all rules, regulations and orders of general application made thereunder, which were in force in England on the thirty-first day of January, 1968, are hereby adopted as laws of Nauru.

(2) The principles and rules of equity which were in force in England on the thirty-first day of January, 1968, are hereby adopted as the principles and rules of equity in Nauru.

(3) In every civil cause or matter instituted in any Court law and equity shall be administered concurrently.

ADOPTION SUBJECT TO NAURU JURISDICTION AND STATUTES

5. (1) The common law, statutes, rules, regulations and orders adopted by the last preceding section shall have force and effect within Nauru only so far as the circumstance of Nauru and the limits of its jurisdiction permit and only so far as they are not repugnant to or inconsistent with the provisions of this Act or of any Ordinance or Act in force at the commencement of this Act or from time to time with any law enacted hereafter by Parliament or with any Act, statute, Ordinance, law, rule or regulation of the Commonwealth of Australia, the State of Queensland, the Territory of Papua or the Territory of New Guinea for the time being expressly applied in, or adopted as the law of, Nauru by any Act or Ordinance.

(2) All references to authorities, persons, places, subjects, matters or things in any part of the laws of England adopted by this Act shall be construed as referring to corresponding or analogous persons, places, subjects, matters or things within Nauru.

(3) For the purpose of facilitating the application of any part of the laws of England adopted by this Act it shall be lawful for any Court, and any judge or magistrate thereof, to construe it with such verbal alteration not affecting the substance, as may be necessary to render it applicable to the matter before such Court, judge or magistrate.

CERTAIN ENGLISH LAWS NOT ADOPTED

6. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 4 of this Act, those parts of the statute law of England which are specified in the First Schedule hereto, all rules, regulations and orders made thereunder and those parts of the common law relating to the same matters shall not apply or have force and effect within Nauru save in so far as all or any of them may be adopted or applied from time to time by any other Act:

Provided that the provisions contained in any such parts shall be deemed to have been adopted and applied where appropriate, for the purpose of the interpretation of the terms and expressions used in the parts of the statute law of England and the subsidiary legislation thereunder adopted by this Act.

REPEAL OF CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF THE LAWS REPEAL AND ADOPTING ORDINANCE 1922-1967

7. Sections. 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17 of the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance 1922-1967 are hereby repealed.

AMENDMENT OF THE FIRST SCHEDULE TO THE LAWS REPEAL AND ADOPTING ORDINANCE 1922-1967

8. The First Schedule to the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance 1922-1967 is amended by deleting therefrom the Acts of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia specified in the Second Schedule to this Act.

AMENDMENT OF THE SECOND SCHEDULE TO THE LAWS REPEAL AND ADOPTING ORDINANCE 1922-1967

9. The Second Schedule to the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance 1922-1967 is amended by deleting therefrom the Act of the State of Queensland specified in the Third Schedule of this Act.

AMENDMENT OF THE THIRD SCHEDULE TO THE LAWS REPEAL AND ADOPTING ORDINANCE 1922-1967

10. The Third Schedule to the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance 1922-1967 is amended by deleting therefrom the Ordinances of the Territory of Papua specified in the Fourth Schedule to this Act.

REPEAL OF MERCHANT SHIPPING ORDINANCE 1924-1967

11. The Merchant Shipping Ordinance 1924-1967 is hereby repealed.

FIRST SCHEDULE
(Section 6)

PARTS OF THE STATUTE LAW OF ENGLAND WHICH SHALL
NOT APPLY WITHIN NAURU

(1) All those parts of the statute law of England which are printed in the Third Edition of Halsbury's Statutes of England under the titles specified hereunder, namely:

Admiralty
Affiliation and Legitimation Proceedings
Agriculture
Aliens and Nationality
Allotments and Small Holdings
Animals
Auctions and Auctioneers
Aviation (other than the Carriage by Air Act 1961, the Carriage by Air (Supplemental Provisions) Act 1962 and the Tokyo Convention Act 1967)
Banking
Bankruptcy and Insolvency (other than the Debtors Act 1869)
Building Contracts, Architects and Engineers
Building Societies
Burial and Cremation
Carriers
Charities (other than the Charitable Trusts (Validation) Act 1954 and the Recreational Charities Act 1958)
Commonwealth and other Territories
Companies
Compulsory Purchase of Land and Compensation
Conflict of Laws
Constitutional Law
Copyholds
Coroners
County Courts
Courts
Criminal Law
Crown Proceedings (Part 1)
Customs and Excise
Distress
Easements and Profits a Prendre
Ecclesiastical Law
Education
Elections
Electricity
Explosives
Extradition and Fugitive Offenders
Factories and Shops (other than the Factories Act 1937)
Ferries
Fire Service
Fisheries
Food and Drugs
Forestry
Friendly Societies
Game
Gas
Highways
Housing
Husband and Wife (Parts 1, 3 and 4)
Industrial and Provident Societies
Infants, Children and Young Persons
Intoxicating Liquor
Juries
Land Drainage and Improvement
Land Tax
Landlord and Tenant
Literary and Scientific Institutions
Loan Societies
Local Government
London
Magistrates
Markets and Fairs
Mayor's and City of London Court
Medicine and Pharmacy
Mines, Minerals and Quarries
Money (Parts 2, 3, (other than the Prevention of Frauds (Investment) Act 1958 and the Protection of Depositors Act 1963) and Part 4)
National Health
National Insurance and Social Security
Northern Ireland
Notaries
Open Spaces and Recreation Grounds
Parliament
Partnership
Patents and Designs
Peerages and Dignities
Pensions and Superannuation
Persons Mentally Disordered
Police
Post Office
Practice and Procedure
Prisons
Prize
Public Authorities and Public Officers
Public Health
Purchase Tax
Railways, Canals and Pipelines
Rating
Real Property (Parts 2 and 3)
Registration Concerning the Individual
Road Traffic
Royal Forces
Savings Banks
Settlements
Sheriffs and Bailiffs

(2) All those parts of the statute law of England which are printed in the Second Edition of Halsbury's Statutes of England under the titles specified hereunder, all those parts of any other Acts of Parliament by which such parts of the statute law have been amended or repealed and replaced, wholly or in part, and all other parts of any other Acts of Parliament the subject-matter of which parts is the same as, or similar to, that of any such parts of the statute law:

Income Tax and Profits Taxes
Revenue
Shipping and Navigation (Parts 2 and 3)
Solicitors
Statutes
Telegraphs and Telephones
Theatres and Other Places of Entertainment
Time
Tithe
Town and Country Planning
Trade and Industry
Trade Marks and Trade Names
Trade Unions
Tramways
Water Supply
Waters and Watercourses
Weights and Measures
War and Emergency
War Damage

SECOND SCHEDULE
(Section 8)

Acts of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia deleted from the First Schedule to the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance 1922-1967

Bills of Exchange Act 1909-1936
Copyright Act 1912-1933
Crimes Act 1914-1915
Evidence Act 1905 
Sea Carriage of Goods Act 1924
State Laws and Records Recognition Act 1901

THIRD SCHEDULE
(Section 9)

Act of the State of Queensland deleted from the Second Schedule to the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance 1922-1967

Statute of Frauds and Limitations of 1867

FOURTH SCHEDULE
(Section 10)

Ordinances of the Territory of Papua deleted from the Third Schedule to the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance 1922-1967

Bills of Sale Ordinance 1912
Defamation Ordinance 1911

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