Cap. 16 Art. 270Functions of a diplomatic or consular representative in relation to acts of civil status.

(1) A diplomatic or consular representative, when so requested by any person interested, shall, in respect of a child who is born or of a person who dies in a foreign country and is a citizen of Malta -

(a) draw up the act of birth of such child or the act of death of such person and record such act in an apposite register;

(b) receive for registration the act of birth of such child or the act of death of such person issued by the competent authority of the place where the birth or death has taken place and record such act in the apposite register referred to in the last preceding paragraph.

(2) Where a citizen of Malta marries in a foreign country, a diplomatic or consular representative shall receive for registration, at the request of either of the parties contracting such marriage or any parents of either of them, any act which according to the law of the country where the marriage has taken place is evidence of the marriage and shall record such act in an apposite register.

(3) The provisions of this Title shall, as far as practicable, apply to and for the purpose of the acts drawn up and the registers kept under the provisions of the foregoing sub-articles by diplomatic and consular representatives, who shall have in respect of such acts and registers the same powers, rights and obligations as are in this Title conferred or imposed upon the Director of Public Registry.

(4) The registers referred to in sub-articles (1) and (2) of this article shall be kept for yearly periods and shall contain an alphabetical index of the registrations entered therein. A certified duplicate copy of such registers with the diplomatic or consular representative’s signature immediately after the last entry transcribed therein shall be transmitted to the Director of Public Registry, for preservation in the Public Registry in Malta, not later than the 31st day of March of the year immediately following the year to which the registers refer, and the provisions of articles 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256 and 257 shall apply in regard to the registrations contained in such duplicate registers as if they were registrations in the register books mentioned in article 238.

(5) The Director of the Public Registry, within thirty days of any correction, cancellation or annotation which he makes in a duplicate register pursuant to the judgment of a court or to the order of the retired Judge or retired Magistrate or retired advocate of the Court of Revision of Notarial Acts, shall inform of such correction, cancellation or annotation the diplomatic or consular representative in the country where the original register is kept who shall forthwith cause the same correction, cancellation or annotation, as the case may be, to be made in such register and shall initial it.

(6) Any person who before a diplomatic or consular representative commits the offence referred to in article 263 may in Malta be prosecuted, tried and punished for such offence in the same manner and to the same extent as if the offence had been committed in Malta.

(7) Any person who suppositiously represents to a diplomatic or consular representative an infant to have been born of a woman who had not been delivered of a child so as to cause such representative to draw up an act of birth under sub-article (1) of this article shall be prosecuted, tried and punished in Malta in the same manner and to the same extent as if he had committed in Malta the corresponding offence mentioned in article 210 of the Criminal Code.

(8) The provisions of sub-articles (6) and (7) of this article shall not apply if the person who has committed the offence has been tried for the same facts constituting it in another country.

(9) Any reference in this article to a diplomatic or consular representative shall be deemed to be a reference to the diplomatic or consular representative of the Government of Malta in the foreign country where a birth, marriage or death has taken place.