CONVENTION ABOLISHING THE REQUIREMENT OF LEGALISATION FOR
FOREIGN PUBLIC DOCUMENTS
(Concluded 5 October 1961)
The States
signatory to the present Convention,
Desiring to
abolish the requirement of diplomatic or consular legalisation for foreign
public documents,
Have resolved to
conclude a Convention to this effect and have agreed upon the following
provisions:
Article 1
The present
Convention shall apply to public documents which have been executed in the
territory of one Contracting State and which have to be produced in the
territory of another Contracting State.
For the purposes
of the present Convention, the following are deemed to be public documents:
a)
documents emanating from an authority or an official connected with the courts
or tribunals of the State, including those emanating from a public prosecutor,
a clerk of a court or a process-server ("huissier
de justice");
b) administrative documents;
c) notarial acts;
d) official certificates which
are placed on documents signed by persons in their private capacity, such as
official certificates recording the registration of a document or the fact that
it was in existence on a certain date and official and notarial authentications
of signatures.
However, the
present Convention shall not apply:
a)
to documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents;
b) to administrative documents
dealing directly with commercial or customs operations.
Article 2
Each Contracting
State shall exempt from legalisation documents to which the present Convention
applies and which have to be produced in its territory. For the purposes of the
present Convention, legalisation means only the formality by which the diplomatic
or consular agents of the country in which the document has to be produced
certify the authenticity of the signature, the capacity in which the person
signing the document has acted and, where appropriate, the identity of the seal
or stamp which it bears.
Article 3
The only
formality that may be required in order to certify the authenticity of the
signature, the capacity in which the person signing the document has acted and,
where appropriate, the identity of the seal or stamp which it bears, is the
addition of the certificate described in Article 4, issued by the competent
authority of the State from which the document emanates.
However, the
formality mentioned in the preceding paragraph cannot be required when either
the laws, regulations, or practice in force in the State where the document is
produced or an agreement between two or more Contracting States have abolished
or simplified it, or exempt the document itself from legalisation.
Article 4
The certificate
referred to in the first paragraph of Article 3 shall be placed on the document
itself or on an "allonge"; it
shall be in the form of the model annexed to the present Convention.
It may, however,
be drawn up in the official language of the authority which issues it. The
standard terms appearing therein may be in a second language also. The title
"Apostille (Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961)" shall be
in the French language.
Article 5
The certificate
shall be issued at the request of the person who has signed the document or of
any bearer.
When properly
filled in, it will certify the authenticity of the signature, the capacity in
which the person signing the document has acted and, where appropriate, the
identity of the seal or stamp which the document bears.
The signature,
seal and stamp on the certificate are exempt from all certification.
Article 6
Each Contracting
State shall designate by reference to their official function, the authorities
who are competent to issue the certificate referred to in the first paragraph
of Article 3.
It shall give
notice of such designation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the
Netherlands at the time it deposits its instrument of ratification or of
accession or its declaration of extension. It shall also give notice of any
change in the designated authorities.
Article 7
Each of the
authorities designated in accordance with Article 6 shall keep a register or
card index in which it shall record the certificates issued, specifying:
a)
the number and date of the certificate,
b) the name of the person signing
the public document and the capacity in which he has acted, or in the case of
unsigned documents, the name of the authority which has affixed the seal or
stamp.
At the request
of any interested person, the authority which has issued the certificate shall
verify whether the particulars in the certificate correspond with those in the
register or card index.
Article 8
When a treaty,
convention or agreement between two or more Contracting States contains
provisions which subject the certification of a signature, seal or stamp to
certain formalities, the present Convention will only override such provisions
if those formalities are more rigorous than the formality referred to in
Articles 3 and 4.
Article 9
Each Contracting
State shall take the necessary steps to prevent the performance of
legalisations by its diplomatic or consular agents in cases where the present
Convention provides for exemption.
Article 10
The present
Convention shall be open for signature by the States represented at the Ninth
Session of the Hague Conference on Private International Law and Iceland,
Ireland, Liechtenstein and Turkey.
It shall be
ratified, and the instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
Article 11
The present
Convention shall enter into force on the sixtieth day after the deposit of the
third instrument of ratification referred to in the second paragraph of Article
10.
The Convention
shall enter into force for each signatory State which ratifies subsequently on
the sixtieth day after the deposit of its instrument of ratification.
Article 12
Any State not
referred to in Article 10 may accede to the present Convention after it has
entered into force in accordance with the first paragraph of Article 11. The
instrument of accession shall be deposited with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of the Netherlands.
Such accession
shall have effect only as regards the relations between the acceding State and
those Contracting States which have not raised an objection to its accession in
the six months after the receipt of the notification referred to in
sub-paragraph d) of Article
15. Any such objection shall be notified to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
the Netherlands.
The Convention
shall enter into force as between the acceding State and the States which have
raised no objection to its accession on the sixtieth day after the expiry of
the period of six months mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
Article 13
Any State may,
at the time of signature, ratification or accession, declare that the present
Convention shall extend to all the territories for the international relations
of which it is responsible, or to one or more of them. Such a declaration shall
take effect on the date of entry into force of the Convention for the State
concerned.
At any time
thereafter, such extensions shall be notified to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of the Netherlands.
When the
declaration of extension is made by a State which has signed and ratified, the
Convention shall enter into force for the territories concerned in accordance
with Article 11. When the declaration of extension is made by a State which has
acceded, the Convention shall enter into force for the territories concerned in
accordance with Article 12.
Article 14
The present
Convention shall remain in force for five years from the date of its entry into
force in accordance with the first paragraph of Article 11, even for States
which have ratified it or acceded to it subsequently.
If there has
been no denunciation, the Convention shall be renewed tacitly every five years.
Any denunciation
shall be notified to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands at
least six months before the end of the five year period.
It may be
limited to certain of the territories to which the Convention applies.
The denunciation
will only have effect as regards the State which has notified it. The
Convention shall remain in force for the other Contracting States.
Article 15
The Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands shall give notice to the States referred to
in Article 10, and to the States which have acceded in accordance with Article
12, of the following:
a)
the notifications referred to in the second paragraph of Article 6;
b) the signatures and
ratifications referred to in Article 10;
c) the date on which the present
Convention enters into force in accordance with the first paragraph of Article
11;
d) the accessions and objections
referred to in Article 12 and the date on which such accessions take effect;
e) the extensions referred
to in Article 13 and the date on which they take effect;
f) the denunciations
referred to in the third paragraph of Article 14.
In witness
whereof the undersigned, being duly authorised thereto, have signed the present
Convention.
Done at The
Hague the 5th October 1961, in French and in English, the French text
prevailing in case of divergence between the two texts, in a single copy which
shall be deposited in the archives of the Government of the Netherlands, and of
which a certified copy shall be sent, through the diplomatic channel, to each
of the States represented at the Ninth Session of the Hague Conference on
Private International Law and also to Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein and
Turkey.
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