23Jurisdiction

#### 23 Jurisdiction 23 Jurisdiction (cf AC Act ss 8 and 9) > > (1) Subject to this Act, the Court may make an order for the adoption of a child (an adoption order) solely in favour of one person or jointly in favour of a couple. > > > > Note— > > > > Couple is defined in the Dictionary to mean 2 persons who are married to each other or who are de facto partners of each other (de facto partner is defined in section 21C (1) of the [Interpretation Act 1987](/view/html/inforce/current/act-1987-015) and refers to persons whether of the same sex or a different sex). The effect of the making of an adoption order is described in Part 11 of this Chapter. > > > (2) The Court must not make an adoption order unless, when the application for the order is filed— > > > > > (a) the child is present in the State, and > > > > > (b) the applicant, or if the application is a joint application, each of the applicants, resides, or is domiciled, in the State. > > > (3) For the purposes of this section, if the Court is satisfied that the child was present in the State, or that the applicant or each applicant was resident or domiciled in the State, for a period of 3 months immediately before the day on which the application was filed, the Court may, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, presume that— > > > > > (a) the child was present in, or > > > > > (b) that the applicant or each applicant was resident or domiciled in, > > > > the State when the application was filed. > > > (4) The Court has jurisdiction under this section to make an adoption order despite any rule of private international law to the contrary. > > > (5) Subject to Part 2 of Chapter 5, the Court has jurisdiction, under and in accordance with this Part, to make an adoption order with respect to the intercountry adoption of a child referred to in Part 2. > > Note— > > Child is defined in the Dictionary. > > **s 23:** Am 2010 No 66, Sch 1 \[1\].