Part 3: General Schedule 4: Limitation periods: Northern Ireland Part 2 – Restriction of foreign limitation law
Part 2 of Schedule 4 amends the Foreign Limitation Periods (Northern Ireland) Order 1985/754, and ensures that where foreign limitation periods are applicable to personal injury and/or death claims connected with overseas operations brought in Scotland, claimants cannot benefit from more generous time limits in foreign law. Those amendments restrict – to a maximum of six years from the date on which the cause of action arose – the court’s discretion to extend the normal time limit for bringing claims against the Ministry of Defence, the Secretary of State for Defence, or members of Her Majesty’s forces for personal injuries, deaths or false imprisonment that occurred during an overseas operation.
	Paragraph 2(1) and (3) insert a new article 3A into the Order.
	Article 3A(1) specifies that, for article 3A(3) to apply, the conditions set out in paragraphs (1) and (2) must be met.
Article 3A(1) requires that the cause of action has arisen in relation to an overseas operation, and is subject to the limitation law of the foreign country under whose law the tort claim has been brought.
Article 3A(2) requires that a period of six years must have elapsed since the date on which the foreign limitation period began, or when the action could first have been brought.
	If both those conditions are satisfied, article 3A(3) specifies that the defendant (i.e. Ministry of Defence, the Secretary of State for Defence, or members of Her Majesty’s forces) will have a complete defence to any such claim. This ensures that no claim in relation to overseas operations that is brought in reliance on foreign law can proceed after six years.
	Article 3A(4) defines the meaning of "overseas armed forces tort action" for the purposes of article 3A.
	Article 3A(5) and (6) specifies what should happen in relation to claims where the limitation period under the applicable foreign law has been suspended, interrupted or disregarded, or where the Limitation (Enemies and Prisoners of War) Act 1945 applies.
	Paragraph 2(4) amends article 8, and specifies that new article 3A applies to any claim that is commenced after that article comes into force. Claims that have been commenced before new article 3A comes into force are unaffected by these amendments.