Last Friday 20th November 2009, it was published the Legislative Resolution Nº 29445 approving the Hague Convention, by means of which it is abolished the requirement of legalization for foreign public documents.
The aforesaid convention, also known as the “Apostille Convention”, is applied 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.
In accordance with the article 1 of The Hague Convention, will be considered as 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:
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to documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents;
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to administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations.
Moreover, according to article 2 the agreement will be applied in the following way:
Each Contracting State shall exempt from legalization documents to which the present Convention applies and which have to be produced in its territory. For the purposes of the present Convention, legalization 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.
The only formality required is the “apostille”, the title "Apostille (Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961)" shall be in the French language. It have to be placed on the document itself or on an "allonge" and it shall be in the form of the model specified to the present Convention.
Likewise, its article 5 mentions that the apostille 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.
Likewise, each Contracting State shall designate by reference to their official function, the authorities who are competent to issue the certificate.
Finally, we point out that in accordance with its article 11, the present Convention shall enter into force on the sixtieth day after the deposit of its instrument of ratification.