Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

The effect of this amendment would be to remove the circumstances under which the State would establish extra territorial jurisdiction over the offence under section 7 of the Criminal Law Act 1997, namely, the offence of impeding the apprehension or prosecution of another person who has committed an arrestable offence. Besides the inconsistency created by the amendment whereby it only applies to one of the offences contained in Part 3, it would also have the effect of establishing universal jurisdiction over the offence where committed outside the State. Moreover, it goes beyond the provisions of Article 15 of the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime, which Part 3 addresses. Article 15 of that convention more or less mirrors what is contained in this section. However, the main objection to the amendment is that universal jurisdiction is not permitted at international law and, accordingly, is not constitutional in accordance with Article 29(8), which allows for the State to exercise extra territorial jurisdiction only in accordance with the generally recognised principles of international law.