(a) Pursuant to the authority vested in this state by Section 112 of Title 4 of the United States Code, the Legislature of the State of California hereby ratifies the California-Nevada Compact for Jurisdiction on Interstate Waters as set forth in Section 853.4.

(b) The Legislature finds that law enforcement has been impaired in sections of Lake Tahoe and Topaz Lake forming an interstate boundary between California and Nevada because of difficulty in determining precisely where a criminal act was committed.

Ask a legal question, get an answer ASAP!
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

Terms Used In California Penal Code 853.3

  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • person: includes a corporation as well as a natural person. See California Penal Code 7
  • state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories, and the words "United States" may include the district and territories. See California Penal Code 7

(c) The Legislature intends that a person arrested for an act that is illegal in both states should not be freed merely because neither state could establish that a crime was committed within its boundaries.

(d) The California-Nevada Compact for Jurisdiction on Interstate Waters is enacted to provide for the enforcement of the laws of this state with regard to certain acts committed on Lake Tahoe or Topaz Lake, on either side of the boundary line between California and Nevada.

(Added by Stats. 1995, Ch. 526, Sec. 5. Effective January 1, 1996.)