Commentary on Sections Part 1 - Adoption Chapter 6 - Adoptions with a Foreign Element Section 90: Overseas adoptions
Section 90 provides that for the purposes of the Act and the Adoption (Northern Ireland) Order 1987, overseas adoptions are those which are specified by regulations made by the Department describing adoptions effected under the law of any country or territory outside the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, and are not Convention adoptions (subsection (1)). Subsection (2) provides that regulations may prescribe the requirements that ought to be met by an adoption of any description effected after the commencement of the regulations for it to be an overseas adoption for the purposes of this Act. The regulations may contain provision as to the manner in which evidence of any overseas adoption may be given (subsection (5)). Subsection (3) imposes a duty on the Department to exercise its powers to make an order so as to secure that adoptions made after that date are not overseas adoptions if it considers that they are not likely within a reasonable time to meet the requirements prescribed by regulations.