Hague
Convention Abolishing The Requirement Of Legalisation For Foreign
Public Documents
5 October 1961
PREAMBLE
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:
SUBSTANTIVE TEXT OF THE CONVENTION
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 1of 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 legalisation's 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; 63
(b) the signatures and ratifications referred to in Article 10;
64
(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; 67
(f) the denunciations referred to in the third paragraph of Article
14.
TESTEMONIUM
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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