Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 61

Summary: - Procedural laws apply from their effective date to procedures not yet completed, even if relating to offenses committed before their entry into force. - Laws amending jurisdiction. Apply with immediate effect. Condition: the case has not been determined by an irrevocable judgment. - The provisions of Law No. 1 of 1993 apply to anyone who commits outside the territory of the State of Kuwait any offense prescribed therein. Article 4 of Law No. 1 of 1993. Reason: it is a procedural provision concerning jurisdiction and is applicable with immediate effect from its issuance. Example of reasoning on an objection responding to a plea that the Kuwaiti judiciary lacks jurisdiction over the two offenses of embezzlement and profiteering. Rule: Article 17 of the Penal Code provides: "Formal laws apply to every procedure taken during their operation, even if relating to an offense committed before their operation...." This means that procedural laws apply from their effective date to procedures not yet completed, even if relating to offenses committed before their entry into force, and that laws amending jurisdiction apply with immediate effect, like procedural law, so long as the case has not been determined by an irrevocable judgment—as in the present case—when Law No. 1 of 1993 concerning the Protection of Public Funds was issued. That Law included Article Four, which provides that its provisions apply to anyone who commits outside the territory of the State of Kuwait any offense prescribed therein. The explanatory memorandum to that Law confirmed the legislature's desire to prosecute all types of offenses against public funds prescribed by the aforementioned Law, even if committed abroad, adopting the protective principle of criminal jurisdiction. The incident in question is embezzlement of public funds and profiteering from official duties, occurring during the period from 14 August 1984 to 10 February 1992, that is, before the aforementioned provision entered into force. Those charges had not yet been determined by an irrevocable judgment, necessarily requiring application to that incident of Article Four of Law No. 1 of 1993 concerning the Protection of Public Funds, to the exclusion of any other provision, because it is a procedural provision concerning jurisdiction and therefore became applicable with immediate effect upon its issuance. Accordingly, jurisdiction to try the appellant and the remaining convicted persons properly vested in the Kuwaiti judiciary. The first-instance judgment, whose reasons were adopted, supplemented, and amended by the challenged judgment, reached the same conclusion in responding to the appellant's plea that the Kuwaiti judiciary lacked jurisdiction over the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and eleventh charges because they were committed outside the territory of the State of Kuwait, and the resulting invalidity of all investigation and disposition procedures conducted by the Public Prosecution and of the trial proceedings, which it consequently rejected. It therefore correctly applied the law, and the appellant's objection to the judgment in this regard is unfounded.