(In the relations
between the Contracting States, this Convention replaces the first chapter of
the Convention on civil procedure of 1 March 1954)
CONVENTION ON THE SERVICE ABROAD OF
JUDICIAL AND EXTRAJUDICIAL DOCUMENTS IN CIVIL OR COMMERCIAL MATTERS
(Concluded 15 November
1965)
The States signatory to the present Convention,
Desiring to create appropriate means to ensure that
judicial and extrajudicial documents to be served abroad shall be brought to
the notice of the addressee in sufficient time,
Desiring to improve the organisation of mutual judicial
assistance for that purpose by simplifying and expediting the procedure,
Have resolved to conclude a Convention to this effect and
have agreed upon the following provisions:
Article 1
The present Convention shall apply in all cases, in civil
or commercial matters, where there is occasion to transmit a judicial or
extrajudicial document for service abroad.
This Convention shall not apply where the address of the
person to be served with the document is not known.
chapter i -
judicial documents
Article 2
Each Contracting State shall designate a Central Authority
which will undertake to receive requests for service coming from other
Contracting States and to proceed in conformity with the provisions of Articles
3 to 6.
Each State shall organise the Central Authority in
conformity with its own law.
Article 3
The authority or judicial officer competent under the law
of the State in which the documents originate shall forward to the Central
Authority of the State addressed a request conforming to the model annexed to
the present Convention, without any requirement of legalisation or other
equivalent formality.
The document to be served or a copy thereof shall be
annexed to the request. The request and the document shall both be furnished in
duplicate.
Article 4
If the Central Authority considers that the request does
not comply with the provisions of the present Convention it shall promptly
inform the applicant and specify its objections to the request.
Article 5
The Central Authority of the State addressed shall itself
serve the document or shall arrange to have it served by an appropriate agency,
either -
a) by a method prescribed by its
internal law for the service of documents in domestic actions upon persons who
are within its territory, or
b) by a particular method requested by the applicant, unless such
a method is incompatible with the law of the State addressed.
Subject to sub-paragraph (b) of the first
paragraph of this Article, the document may always be served by delivery to an
addressee who accepts it voluntarily.
If the document is to be served under the first paragraph
above, the Central Authority may require the document to be written in, or
translated into, the official language or one of the official languages of the
State addressed.
That part of the request, in the form attached to the
present Convention, which contains a summary of the document to be served,
shall be served with the document.
Article 6
The Central Authority of the State addressed or any
authority which it may have designated for that purpose, shall complete a
certificate in the form of the model annexed to the present Convention.
The certificate shall state that the document has been
served and shall include the method, the place and the date of service and the
person to whom the document was delivered. If the document has not been served,
the certificate shall set out the reasons which have prevented service.
The applicant may require that a certificate not completed
by a Central Authority or by a judicial authority shall be countersigned by one
of these authorities.
The certificate shall be forwarded directly to the
applicant.
Article 7
The standard terms in the model annexed to the present
Convention shall in all cases be written either in French or in English. They
may also be written in the official language, or in one of the official
languages, of the State in which the documents originate.
The corresponding blanks shall be completed either in the
language of the State addressed or in French or in English.
Article 8
Each Contracting State shall be free to effect service of
judicial documents upon persons abroad, without application of any compulsion,
directly through its diplomatic or consular agents.
Any State may declare that it is opposed to such service
within its territory, unless the document is to be served upon a national of
the State in which the documents originate.
Article 9
Each Contracting State shall be free, in addition, to use
consular channels to forward documents, for the purpose of service, to those
authorities of another Contracting State which are designated by the latter for
this purpose.
Each Contracting State may, if exceptional circumstances so
require, use diplomatic channels for the same purpose.
Article 10
Provided the State of destination does not object, the
present Convention shall not interfere with -
a) the freedom to send judicial
documents, by postal channels, directly to persons abroad,
b) the freedom of judicial officers, officials or other competent
persons of the State of origin to effect service of judicial documents directly
through the judicial officers, officials or other competent persons of the
State of destination,
c) the freedom of any person interested in a judicial proceeding
to effect service of judicial documents directly through the judicial officers,
officials or other competent persons of the State of destination.
Article 11
The present Convention shall not prevent two or more
Contracting States from agreeing to permit, for the purpose of service of
judicial documents, channels of transmission other than those provided for in
the preceding Articles and, in particular, direct communication between their
respective authorities.
Article 12
The service of judicial documents coming from a Contracting
State shall not give rise to any payment or reimbursement of taxes or costs for
the services rendered by the State addressed.
The applicant shall pay or reimburse the costs occasioned
by --
a) the employment of a judicial
officer or of a person competent under the law of the State of destination,
b) the use of a particular method of service.
Article 13
Where a request for service complies with the terms of the
present Convention, the State addressed may refuse to comply therewith only if
it deems that compliance would infringe its sovereignty or security.
It may not refuse to comply solely on the ground that,
under its internal law, it claims exclusive jurisdiction over the
subject-matter of the action or that its internal law would not permit the
action upon which the application is based.
The Central Authority shall, in case of refusal, promptly
inform the applicant and state the reasons for the refusal.
Article 14
Difficulties which may arise in connection with the
transmission of judicial documents for service shall be settled through
diplomatic channels.
Article 15
Where a writ of summons or an equivalent document had to be
transmitted abroad for the purpose of service, under the provisions of the
present Convention, and the defendant has not appeared, judgment shall not be
given until it is established that -
a) the document was served by a
method prescribed by the internal law of the State addressed for the service of
documents in domestic actions upon persons who are within its territory, or
b) the document was actually delivered to the defendant or to his
residence by another method provided for by this Convention,
and that in either of these cases the service or the
delivery was effected in sufficient time to enable the defendant to defend.
Each Contracting State shall be free to declare that the
judge, notwithstanding the provisions of the first paragraph of this Article,
may give judgment even if no certificate of service or delivery has been
received, if all the following conditions are fulfilled -
a) the document was transmitted by
one of the methods provided for in this Convention,
b) a period of time of not less than six months, considered
adequate by the judge in the particular case, has elapsed since the date of the
transmission of the document,
c) no certificate of any kind has been received, even though every
reasonable effort has been made to obtain it through the competent authorities
of the State addressed.
Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding paragraphs
the judge may order, in case of urgency, any provisional or protective
measures.
Article 16
When a writ of summons or an equivalent document had to be
transmitted abroad for the purpose of service, under the provisions of the
present Convention, and a judgment has been entered against a defendant who has
not appeared, the judge shall have the power to relieve the defendant from the
effects of the expiration of the time for appeal from the judgment if the
following conditions are fulfilled -
a) the defendant, without any
fault on his part, did not have knowledge of the document in sufficient time to
defend, or knowledge of the judgment in sufficient time to appeal, and
b) the defendant has disclosed a prima facie defence
to the action on the merits.
An application for relief may be filed only within a
reasonable time after the defendant has knowledge of the judgment.
Each Contracting State may declare that the application
will not be entertained if it is filed after the expiration of a time to be
stated in the declaration, but which shall in no case be less than one year
following the date of the judgment.
This Article shall not apply to judgments concerning status
or capacity of persons.
chapter ii -
extrajudicial documents
Article 17
Extrajudicial documents emanating from authorities and
judicial officers of a Contracting State may be transmitted for the purpose of
service in another Contracting State by the methods and under the provisions of
the present Convention.
chapter iii -
general clauses
Article 18
Each Contracting State may designate other authorities in
addition to the Central Authority and shall determine the extent of their
competence.
The applicant shall, however, in all cases, have the right
to address a request directly to the Central Authority.
Federal States shall be free to designate more than one
Central Authority.
Article 19
To the extent that the internal law of a Contracting State
permits methods of transmission, other than those provided for in the preceding
Articles, of documents coming from abroad, for service within its territory,
the present Convention shall not affect such provisions.
Article 20
The present Convention shall not prevent an agreement
between any two or more Contracting States to dispense with -
a) the necessity for duplicate
copies of transmitted documents as required by the second paragraph of Article
3,
b) the language requirements of the third paragraph of Article 5
and Article 7,
c) the provisions of the fourth paragraph of Article 5,
d) the provisions of the second paragraph of Article 12.
Article 21
Each Contracting State shall, at the time of the deposit of
its instrument of ratification or accession, or at a later date, inform the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands of the following -
a) the designation of authorities,
pursuant to Articles 2 and 18,
b) the designation of the authority competent to complete the
certificate pursuant to Article 6,
c) the designation of the authority competent to receive documents
transmitted by consular channels, pursuant to Article 9.
Each Contracting State shall similarly inform the Ministry,
where appropriate, of -
a) opposition to the use of
methods of transmission pursuant to Articles 8 and 10,
b) declarations pursuant to the second paragraph of Article 15 and
the third paragraph of Article 16,
c) all modifications of the above designations, oppositions and
declarations.
Article 22
Where Parties to the present Convention are also Parties to
one or both of the Conventions on civil procedure signed at The Hague on 17th
July 1905, and on 1st March 1954, this Convention shall replace as between them
Articles 1 to 7 of the earlier Conventions.
Article 23
The present Convention shall not affect the application of
Article 23 of the Convention on civil procedure signed at The Hague on 17th
July 1905, or of Article 24 of the Convention on civil procedure signed at The
Hague on 1st March 1954.
These Articles shall, however, apply only if methods of
communication, identical to those provided for in these Conventions, are used.
Article 24
Supplementary agreements between Parties to the Conventions
of 1905 and 1954 shall be considered as equally applicable to the present
Convention, unless the Parties have otherwise agreed.
Article 25
Without prejudice to the provisions of Articles 22 and 24,
the present Convention shall not derogate from Conventions containing
provisions on the matters governed by this Convention to which the Contracting
States are, or shall become, Parties.
Article 26
The present Convention shall be open for signature by the
States represented at the Tenth Session of the Hague Conference on Private
International Law.
It shall be ratified, and the instruments of ratification
shall be deposited with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
Article 27
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 26.
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 28
Any State not represented at the Tenth Session of the Hague
Conference on Private International Law may accede to the present Convention
after it has entered into force in accordance with the first paragraph of
Article 27. The instrument of accession shall be deposited with the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
The Convention shall enter into force for such a State in
the absence of any objection from a State, which has ratified the Convention
before such deposit, notified to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the
Netherlands within a period of six months after the date on which the said
Ministry has notified it of such accession.
In the absence of any such objection, the Convention shall
enter into force for the acceding State on the first day of the month following
the expiration of the last of the periods referred to in the preceding
paragraph.
Article 29
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.
The Convention shall enter into force for the territories
mentioned in such an extension on the sixtieth day after the notification
referred to in the preceding paragraph.
Article 30
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 27, even for States which have ratified it or acceded to it
subsequently.
If there has been no denunciation, it 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 shall have effect only as regards the
State which has notified it. The Convention shall remain in force for the other
Contracting States.
Article 31
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands shall
give notice to the States referred to in Article 26, and to the States which
have acceded in accordance with Article 28, of the following -
a) the signatures and
ratifications referred to in Article 26;
b) the date on which the present Convention enters into force in
accordance with the first paragraph of Article 27;
c) the accessions referred to in Article 28 and the dates on which
they take effect;
d) the extensions referred to in Article 29 and the dates on which
they take effect;
e) the designations, oppositions and declarations referred to in
Article 21;
f) the denunciations referred to in the third paragraph of Article
30.
In witness whereof the undersigned, being duly authorised
thereto, have signed the present Convention.
Done at The Hague, on the 15th day of November, 1965, in
the English and French languages, both texts being equally authentic, 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 Tenth Session of
the Hague Conference on Private International Law.
N.B. On 25 October 1980 the
Fourteenth Session adopted a Recommendation on information to
accompany judicial and extrajudicial documents to be sent or served abroad in
civil or commercial matters (Proceedings of the Fourteenth Session, Tome
I, Miscellaneous matters, p. 67; idem, Tome IV, Judicial
co-operation, p. 339; Practical Handbook on the Operation of
the Hague Service Convention, Appendix 3, p. 129).
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