California-Nevada Compact for Jurisdiction on Interstate Waters

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California-Nevada Compact
Formation date:	1995
Member jurisdictions:	2
Issue(s):	Law enforcement

The California-Nevada Compact is an interstate compact between California and Nevada, and also has congressional consent. It provides for concurrent jurisdiction to arrest, prosecute, and try offenders who commit crimes on Lake Tahoe or Topaz Lake.

Text of the compact

The legislature of each member state passes the laws with certain modifications, but the core of the legislation remains the same. The text below comes from the Nevada State Legislature.

Article I: Purpose and Policy 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. The legislature intends that a person committing an act which is illegal in both states not be freed merely because neither state could establish that a crime was committed within its boundaries. The California-Nevada Compact for Jurisdiction on Interstate Waters is enacted to provide for 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. Article II: Definitions As used in this compact, unless the context otherwise requires, "party state" means a state which has enacted this compact. Article III: Concurrent Jurisdiction If conduct is prohibited by the party states, courts and law enforcement officers in either state who have jurisdiction over criminal offenses committed in a county where Lake Tahoe or Topaz Lake forms a common interstate boundary have concurrent jurisdiction to arrest, prosecute and try offenders for the prohibited conduct committed anywhere on the body of water forming a boundary between the two states. This compact does not authorize: (a) Prosecution of any person for conduct which is lawful in the state where it was committed. (b) Any conduct prohibited by a party state. Article IV: Ratification This compact is ratified by enactment of the language of this compact, or substantially similar language expressing the same purpose, by the State of California and the State of Nevada.

See also

• Interstate compact

External links

Suggest a link

• The Council of State Governments - National Center for Interstate Compacts
• California-Nevada Compact for Jurisdiction on Interstate Waters