The Czech Republic has finally acceded to the Hague Convention of Oct. 5, 1961 on abolishing requirement of legalisation for foreign public documents. This accession comes into force from March 16th, 1999.
As a result, the only formality that will now be required to prove authenticity of a foreign public document originating from another signatory State in order to certify the authenticity of a signature, the capacity in which a person signing a document has acted and, where appropriate, the authenticity of the seal or stamp which a documents bears, is the addition of an "apostille" certificate issued by the competent authority of the State from which the document originates.
The Czech Republic has announced that the authority which will be competent to issue the apostille certificate will be the International Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in relation to documents issued by judicial authorities, including notaries, and the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for other documents.
The Czech Republic has also concluded bilateral agreements on legal services, including recognition of acknowledgements, with Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland and Tunisia.
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