CONVENTION ABOLISHING THE REQUIREMENT OF
LEGALISATION FOR FOREIGN PUBLIC DOCUMENTS1
(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) documentsemanating 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) administrativedocuments;
- c) notarialacts;
- d) officialcertificates 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) todocuments executed by diplomatic or consular agents;
- b) toadministrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs
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
1 This Convention, including related materials, is accessible on the website of the Hague Conference on Private
International Law (www.hcch.net), under “Conventions” or under the “Apostille Section”. For the full history of the
Convention, see Hague Conference on Private International Law, Actes et documents de la Neuvième session
(1960), Tome II, Légalisation (193 pp.).
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) thenumber and date of the certificate,
- b) thename 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) thenotifications referred to in the second paragraph of Article 6;
- b) thesignatures and ratifications referred to in Article 10;
- c) thedate on which the present Convention enters into force in accordance with the first paragraph
of Article 11;
- d) theaccessions and objections referred to in Article 12 and the date on which such accessions
take effect;
- e) theextensions referred to in Article 13 and the date on which they take effect;
- f) thedenunciations referred to in the third paragraph of Article
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.