57.— (1) In this section, “competent authority” includes a person serving in another state in the capacity of a competent authority for the purposes of an intercountry adoption effected outside the State.

(2) Subject to subsections (3) and (4), an intercountry adoption effected outside the State that—

(a) if effected at any time before the establishment day—

(i) is an adoption that, at that time, conformed to the definition of “foreign adoption” in section 1 of the Adoption Act 1991, and

(ii) has been certified under a certificate issued by the competent authority of the state of the adoption as having been effected under and in accordance with the law of that state, or

(b) if effected on or after the establishment day, has been certified under a certificate issued by the competent authority of the state of the adoption—

(i) in the case of an adoption referred to in paragraph (b) of the definition of “intercountry adoption effected outside the State” in section 3(1), as having been effected by an adopter or adopters who were habitually resident in that state at the time of the adoption under and in accordance with the law of that state, and

(ii) in any other case, as having been effected in accordance with the Hague Convention or with a bilateral agreement or with an arrangement referred to in section 81, as the case may be,

unless contrary to public policy, is hereby recognised, and is deemed to have been effected by a valid adoption order made on the later of the following:

(I) the date of the adoption;

(II) the date on which, under section 90, the Authority enters particulars of the adoption in the register of intercountry adoptions.

(3) Subject to subsection (4), if an intercountry adoption effected outside the State that, under subsection (2), is recognised and deemed to have been effected by a valid adoption order has the effect in the state of the adoption of terminating a pre-existing legal parent-child relationship, the adoption, as of the date of the deeming under that subsection, has substantially the same effect as an adoption effected by an adoption order.

(4) If an intercountry adoption effected outside the State that, under subsection (2) is recognised and deemed to have been effected by a valid adoption order, does not have the effect in the state of the adoption of terminating a pre-existing legal parent-child relationship, the adoption, as of the date of the deeming under that subsection, has the effect, in respect of the child, of making applicable section 58(a) but not section 58(b).