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ADOPTION (HAGUE CONVENTION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1969

ADOPTION (HAGUE CONVENTION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1969 - LONG TITLE

An Act to make provision for extending the powers of the court to
make orders with respect to the adoption of children; for enabling
effect to be given in Northern Ireland to adoptions effected in
other countries and to determinations of authorities in other
countries with respect to adoptions; and for purposes connected with
the matters aforesaid.
[11th November 1969]
WHEREAS a Convention relating to the adoption of children was
concluded at the Hague on 15th November 1965 and was signed on
behalf of the United Kingdom on that date:

And Whereas, with a view to the ratification by Her Majesty of
that Convention and for other purposes, it is expedient to amend
the law in force in Northern Ireland relating to the adoption of
children:

Power to make convention adoption orders.

ADOPTION (HAGUE CONVENTION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1969 - SECT 1

1.(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the court may, upon
an application made in the prescribed manner by a qualified person
or qualified spouses, make an order under this section (in this Act
referred to as a "convention adoption order") authorising the
applicant or applicants to adopt a qualified infant.

(2) A convention adoption order may be made notwithstanding that the
infant is already adopted under a convention adoption order or
otherwise.

(3) In this Act

"qualified person" means a person who either

(a)resides in Northern Ireland and is a United Kingdom national or
a national of a convention country; or

(b)resides in a convention country or a specified country and is a
United Kingdom national;

"qualified spouses" means two persons married to each other in a
case where

(a)both reside in Northern Ireland and each is a United Kingdom
national or a national of a convention country; or

(b)both are United Kingdom nationals and each resides in Northern
Ireland, a specified country or a convention country;

"qualified infant" means a person who

(a)is under eighteen years of age at the time when the application
for a convention adoption order is made and is not or has not
been married; and

(b)is a United Kingdom national or a national of a convention
country and resides in Northern Ireland, a specified country or a
convention country.

ADOPTION (HAGUE CONVENTION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1969 - SECT 2
Application of Act of 1967 to convention adoption orders.

2.(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the Adoption Act
(Northern Ireland) 1967 (in this Act referred to as the "Act of
1967") shall have effect as if any reference in that Act to an
adoption order within the meaning of that Act included a reference
to a convention adoption order within the meaning of this Act.

(2) The references to an adoption order in sections 1, 9, 16(5),
17(6), 18(5), 19(6), 20 and 21 of the Act of 1967 shall not
include a reference to a convention adoption order.

(3) The Act of 1967 as modified by subsections (1) and (2) shall
have effect in relation to a convention adoption order and a
proposed convention adoption order subject to the following further
modifications

(a)the following provisions shall be omitted, that is to say, in
section 3(2) the words "domiciled but", section 10 (appeals by way
of rehearing), section 45 (rules) and in section 46(1) the
definitions of "adoption order", "Adoption Rules", "county court
rules" and "infant";

(b)any reference to Adoption Rules or the court within the meaning
of that Act shall respectively be construed as a reference to rules
and the court within the meaning of this Act;

(c)in section 8(3) (interim order not to be made where the making
of an adoption order would be unlawful by virtue of section 3) the
reference to section 3 of the Act of 1967 shall include a
reference to section 3(1) of this Act.

(4) Sections 4 to 6 of the Act of 1967 (which relate to consents)
shall not apply to a convention adoption order proposed to be made
in respect of an infant who is not a United Kingdom national and
section 3(3) shall have effect in relation to such a convention
adoption order, and accordingly, in section 7(1)(a) of the Act of
1967 the reference to that Act shall include a reference to this
Act.

(5) In any enactment passed before the date on which this
subsection comes into force, other than the Act of 1967, any
reference to an adoption order within the meaning of the Act of
1967 or to adoption or a person adopted under that Act or such an
order shall respectively be construed as including a reference to,
or to adoption or a person adopted under, a convention adoption
order within the meaning of this Act.

ADOPTION (HAGUE CONVENTION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1969 - SECT 3
Restrictions on making of convention adoption orders.

3.(1) A convention adoption order shall not be made on the
application of a person who is not a United Kingdom national or of
spouses who are not United Kingdom nationals if the adoption which
would be effected by the order is prohibited by a provision of the
internal law of the country of which the person is a national or
the spouses are nationals, being a provision specified in an order
made under section 3(1) of the Adoption Act 1968.

(2) A convention adoption order shall not be made in pursuance of
an application made at a time when the applicant or applicants and
the infant are United Kingdom nationals and reside in Northern
Ireland or a specified country.

(3) A convention adoption order shall not be made in respect of an
infant who is not a United Kingdom national

(a)except in accordance with the provisions, if any, relating to
consents and consultations of the internal law relating to adoption
of the country of which the infant is a national; and

(b)where the application for the order is made by one of two
spouses, unless the other spouse consents to the application or the
court dispenses with his or her consent on being satisfied as to
any of the matters mentioned in section 5(3) of the Act of 1967.

(4) The reference to consents and consultations in paragraph (a) of
subsection (3) does not include a reference to consent by and
consultation with the applicant for the order and members of the
applicant's family (including his or her spouse), and for the
purposes of that subsection consents may be proved in the prescribed
manner and the court shall be treated as the authority by whom,
under the law mentioned in that paragraph, consents may be dispensed
with and the adoption in question may be authorised; and where the
provisions there mentioned require the attendance before that
authority of any person who does not reside in Northern Ireland,
that requirement shall be treated as satisfied for the purposes of
subsection (3) if

(a)that person has been given a reasonable opportunity of
communicating his opinion on the adoption in question to the proper
officer of the court, or to an appropriate authority of the country
in question for transmission to the court; and

(b)where he has availed himself of that opportunity, his opinion has
been transmitted to the court.

(5) A convention adoption order shall not be made unless the
applicant for the order is a qualified person or the applicants for
the order are qualified spouses not only at the time of the
application but also immediately before the order is made.

(6) Except in the case of an adoption by qualified spouses, an
adoption order shall not be made authorising more than one person
to adopt a qualified infant.

Extension of enactments to certain foreign adoptions.

ADOPTION (HAGUE CONVENTION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1969 - SECT 4

4.(1) Subject to sections 5 and 6, any provision, however expressed,
in any enactment (as defined by section 1(b) of the Interpretation
Act (Northern Ireland) 1954) passed before the date on which this
section comes into force under which a person adopted in pursuance
of an adoption order within the meaning of the Act of 1967 is for
any purpose treated as the child of the adopter, or any other
relationship is deduced by reference to such an order, shall have
effect as respects anything done or any event occurring on or after
that date as extending to a foreign adoption.

(2) Subject as aforesaid, [Article 2(5) of the Industrial Assurance
(Northern Ireland) Order 1979] (which relates to transfer of rights
under certain insurance policies) and sections 17(1) to (5) and
19(3) of the Act of 1967 (which relate respectively to affiliation
orders and distribution of property) shall have effect as if any
reference to an adoption order within the meaning of the Act of
1967 included a reference to a foreign adoption.

(3) In this Act "foreign adoption" means an adoption specified by
an order made under section 4(3) of the Adoption Act 1968 and
evidence of a foreign adoption may be given in the manner provided
by the order.

ADOPTION (HAGUE CONVENTION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1969 - SECT 5
Recognition of foreign determinations in adoption proceedings.

5.(1) Where an authority of a convention country or a specified
country having power under the law of that country

(a)to authorise or review the authorisation of a foreign convention
adoption or a specified order; or

(b)to give or review a decision revoking or annulling a foreign
convention adoption, a specified order or a convention adoption
order;

(2) In this Act "foreign convention adoption" means a foreign
adoption of a description designated by an order made under section
4(3) of the Adoption Act 1968 as that of an adoption regulated by
the Convention.

ADOPTION (HAGUE CONVENTION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1969 - SECT 6
Annulment etc., of certain foreign adoptions and determinations.

6.(1) The court may, upon an application under this subsection, by
order annul [an adoption effected by a foreign convention order or]
a foreign convention adoption

(a)on the ground that at the relevant time the adoption was
prohibited by a notified provision, if under the internal law then
in force in the country of which the adopter was then a national
or the adopters were then nationals the adoption could have been
impugned on that ground;

(b)on the ground that at the relevant time the adoption contravened
provisions relating to consents of the internal law relating to
adoption of the country of which the adopted person was then a
national, if under that law the adoption could then have been
impugned on that ground;

(c)on any other ground on which the adoption can be impugned under
the law for the time being in force in the country in which the
adoption was effected.

(2) Where a person adopted by his father or mother alone by virtue
of a foreign convention adoption has subsequently become a
legitimated person on the marriage of his father and mother, the
court may, upon an application under this subsection by the parties
concerned, by order revoke the adoption.

(3) The court may, upon an application under this subsection

(a)order that a foreign adoption or a determination shall cease to
be valid in Northern Ireland on the ground that the adoption or
determination is contrary to public policy or that the authority
which purported to authorise the adoption or make the determination
was not competent to entertain the case;

(b)decide the extent, if any, to which a determination has been
affected by a subsequent determination.

(4) Except as provided by this section, the validity of a foreign
adoption or a determination shall not be impugned in proceedings in
any court in Northern Ireland.

ADOPTION (HAGUE CONVENTION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1969 - SECT 7
Provisions supplementary to section 6.

7.(1) Any application for an order under section 6 or a decision
under section 6(3)(b) shall be made in the prescribed manner and
within such period, if any, as may be prescribed.

(2) No application shall be made under subsection (1) or (2) of
section 6 ... unless immediately before the application is made the
person adopted or the adopter resides in Northern Ireland or, as
the case may be, both adopters reside there.

(3) In deciding in pursuance of section 6 whether such an authority
as is mentioned in section 5(1) was competent to entertain a
particular case, the court shall be bound by any finding of fact
made by the authority and stated by the authority to be so made
for the purpose of determining whether the authority was competent
to entertain the case.

(4) In section 6 and this section

"determination" means such a determination as is mentioned in section
5(1);

"notified provision" means a provision specified in an order made
under section 7(4) of the Adoption Act 1968; and

"relevant time" means the time when the adoption in question
purported to take effect under the law of the country in which it
purports to have been effected.

Registration.

ADOPTION (HAGUE CONVENTION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1969 - SECT 8

8.(1) The direction contained in a convention adoption order in
pursuance of section 24 of the Act of 1967 (under which the
Registrar General is required to register adoptions in the Adopted
Children Register) shall include an instruction that the entry made
in that register in consequence of the order shall be marked with
the words "Convention order".

(2) If the Registrar General is satisfied that an entry in the
Register of Births relates to a person adopted under a foreign
adoption and that he has sufficient particulars relating to that
person to enable an entry in the form set out in Schedule 1 to
the Act of 1967, as modified by this subsection, to be made in
the Adopted Children Register in respect of that person, he shall

(a)make such an entry in the Adopted Children Register; and

(b)if there is a previous entry in respect of that person in that
register, mark the entry (or if there is more than one such entry
the last of them) with the word "Re-adopted" followed by the name
in brackets of the country in which the adoption was effected; and

(c)unless the entry in the Register of Births is already marked
with the word "Adopted" (whether or not followed by other words),
mark the entry with that word followed by the name in brackets of
the country aforesaid;

(3) If the Registrar General is satisfied

(a)that a convention adoption order or a foreign adoption has ceased
to have effect, whether on annulment or otherwise; or

(b)that any entry or mark was erroneously made in pursuance of
subsection (2) in any register mentioned in that subsection;

(4) Without prejudice to subsection (3), where an entry in the
Register of Births is marked in pursuance of subsection (2) and the
birth in question is subsequently re-registered under section 30 of
the Births and Deaths Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 1967 (which
provides for the re-registration of the birth of a legitimated
person) the entry made on re-registration shall be marked in the
like manner.

ADOPTION (HAGUE CONVENTION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1969 - SECT 9
Nationality.

9.(1) If by an order under section 9(1) of the Adoption Act 1968
it is declared that a description of persons specified in the order
has, in pursuance of the Convention, been notified to the Government
of the United Kingdom as the description of persons who are deemed
to possess the nationality of a particular convention country,
persons of that description shall, subject to the following
provisions of this section, be treated for the purposes of this Act
as nationals of that country.

(2) Subject to section 7(3) and subsection (3), where it appears to
the court in any proceedings under this Act that a person is or
was at a particular time a national of two or more countries, then

(a)if it appears to the court that he is or was then a United
Kingdom national, he shall be treated for the purposes of those
proceedings as if he were or had then been a United Kingdom
national only;

(b)if, in a case if not falling within paragraph (a) above, it
appears to the court that one only of those countries is or was
then a convention country, he shall be treated for those purposes
as if he were or had then been a national of that country only;

(c)if, in a case not falling within paragraph (a) above, it appears
to the court that two or more of those countries are or were then
convention countries, he shall be treated for those purposes as if
he were or had been then a national of such one of those
convention countries as the court considers is the country with
which he is or was then most closely connected;

(d)in any other case, he shall be treated for those purposes as if
he were or had then been a national of such one only of those
countries as the court considers is the country with which he is
or was then most closely connected.

(3) In any proceedings brought in pursuance of section 6 the court
shall be entitled to disregard the provisions of subsection (2) in
so far as it appears to the court appropriate to do so for the
purposes of those proceedings; but nothing in this subsection shall
be construed as prejudicing the provisions of section 7(3).

(4) Where, after such enquiries as it considers appropriate, it
appears to the court in any proceedings under this Act that a
person has no nationality or no ascertainable nationality, he shall
be treated for the purposes of those proceedings as a national of
the country in which he resides or where that country is one of
two or more countries having the same law of nationality, as a
national of those countries.

ADOPTION (HAGUE CONVENTION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1969 - SECT 10
1968 c.53

10.(1) In any case where the internal law of a country falls to
be ascertained for the purposes of this Act by the court and there
are in force in that country two or more systems of internal law,
the relevant system shall be ascertained in accordance with any rule
in force throughout that country indicating which of the systems is
relevant in the case in question or, if there is no such rule,
shall be the system appearing to the court to be most closely
connected with the case.

(2) Except as otherwise expressly provided by this Act, nothing in
this Act shall be construed as depriving an adoption effected
outside Northern Ireland, or a determination made outside Northern
Ireland with respect to such an adoption, of any recognition falling
to be accorded to it under the law of Northern Ireland apart from
this Act.

(3) In section 1(4) and (5) of the Act of 1967 (whereby an infant
may be re-adopted and the adopter is deemed to be the parent of
the infant) the references to an order previously made and to the
previous or last previous order shall be construed as including
references to a convention adoption order under this Act, a
specified order and a foreign adoption.

(4) In section 11(3)(a) of the Criminal Injuries to Persons
(Compensation) Act (Northern Ireland) 1968 the reference to any
corresponding enactment (being an enactment corresponding to the Act
of 1967) shall include a reference to an enactment corresponding to
section 1 of this Act.

ADOPTION (HAGUE CONVENTION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1969 - SECT 11
1968 c.9

11.(1) Provision in regard to any matter to be prescribed under
this Act, or under Part I of the Act of 1967 in its application
to convention adoption orders and proposed convention adoption orders,
and dealing generally with all matters of procedure and incidental
matters arising out of this Act or the said Part I and for
carrying this Act or the said Part I into effect shall be made by
rules of court.

(2) Without prejudice to section 21 of the Interpretation Act
(Northern Ireland) 1954 rules of court may provide

(a)for applications for convention adoption orders to be heard and
determined otherwise than in open court;

(b)for excluding or restricting the jurisdiction of any court where
an application for a convention adoption order within the meaning of
this Act or an adoption order within the meaning of the Act of
1967 has been refused by that or any other court.

(3) The Lord Chief Justice may make rules with respect to any
matter (not being a matter prescribed by rules under subsection (1)
or (2)) with respect to which it appears to him to be necessary
or expedient to make rules for giving due effect to the provisions
of this Act.

ADOPTION (HAGUE CONVENTION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1969 - SECT 12
1954 c.33

12. In this Act

"the Act of 1967" means the Adoption Act (Northern Ireland) 1967;

"the Convention" means the Convention mentioned in the preamble;

"convention adoption order" has the meaning assigned to it by
section 1(1);

"convention country" means any country (excluding Northern Ireland and
a specified country) for the time being designated by an order made
under section 11(1) of the Adoption Act 1968 as a country in which
the Convention is in force;

"the court" means the High Court;

"internal law" in relation to any country means the law applicable
in a case where no question arises as to the law in force in any
other country;

"foreign adoption" has the meaning assigned to it by section 4(3);

"foreign convention adoption" has the meaning assigned to it by
section 5(2);

"prescribed" means prescribed by rules;

"qualified infant" has the meaning assigned to it by section 1(3);

"qualified person" has the meaning assigned to it by section 1(3);

"qualified spouses" has the meaning assigned to it by section 1(3);

"reside" means habitually reside;

"rules" means rules made under section 11;

"specified country" means, for the purposes of any provision of this
Act, Great Britain and any country other than Northern Ireland which
is a specified country for the purposes of any corresponding
provision of the Adoption Act 1968;

"specified order" means an adoption order made under any enactment
in force in a specified country and corresponding to section 1; and

"United Kingdom national" means, for the purposes of any provision
of this Act, a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies
satisfying such conditions, if any, as may be specified by an order
made under section 11(1) of the Adoption Act 1968 for the purposes
of any corresponding provision of that Act.

ADOPTION (HAGUE CONVENTION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1969 - SECT 13
1968 c.53

13.(1) This Act may be cited as the Adoption (Hague Convention) Act
(Northern Ireland) 1969.

(2) Commencement

Short title and commencement.