The Judiciarys Law Journal

The Judiciarys Law Journal

Apostille Convention and the Effect of its Accession on the Iranian Legal System

Document Type : Research/Original/Regular Article

Author
Seyed Saeed Hashemi
Researcher of Judiciary Research Institute, Tehran, Iran
10.22106/jlj.2020.135478.3638
Abstract
At the initiative of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, the Convention Abolishing the Need to Certify Official Documents of Foreign Government Documents was adopted in 1961. In 2012, the Islamic Republic of Iran approved the Act of "the Accession of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Apostille Convention". However, the instruments of the accession to this convention have not yet been deposited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. So after several years, Iran is not considered a member of this convention. The main purpose of this convention is to facilitate the certification of documents as well as to facilitate the use of internal documents in other member states of the convention. By acceding to this convention, the consular representations that mediate the certification of documents are eliminated. This research uses a descriptive-analytical method to examine different parts of this convention and in each part analyzes the view of Iranian law based on the executive regulations of the Act of accession to the Convention and explains the appropriate solution in this regard. In the final part of the research, the consequences of accession to this convention are explained. With the passage of this Act, some domestic acts of Iran in reciprocal relations with the member states of this treaty have been implicitly abrogated, including the fourth paragraph of Article 1295 and Article 1296 of the Civil Code, as well as paragraph A of Article 2 of the Act of the Translation of statements and documents in courts and official offices. Accession to the convention also facilitates the attraction of foreign investment and reduces the outflow of foreign currency for certification. Therefore, Iran's accession to this convention is a positive step for the national interest and it is recommended to take other executive steps to join this treaty.
Keywords
The Hague Conference
Hague 1961 Convention
Formal documents
Public documents
Official documents

Subjects

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The Judiciarys Law Journal
Volume 84, Issue 112
Autumn 2020
Pages 291-319

  • Receive Date 26 August 2020
  • Revise Date 30 September 2020
  • Accept Date 28 September 2020
  • First Publish Date 01 October 2020
  • Publish Date 21 December 2020