In an era of open borders and increasing globalisation, there is often a need to present public documents originating from one country in another country. Such documents often constitute the only proof of the existence of a right or can have an extremely significant impact on the legal situation of an entity.
Apostille – apostil
This applies to documents present in everyday life – such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates, diplomas – as well as to documents present in business – such as extracts from official registers, court judgments, deeds (see What can receive an apostille?).
Polish public documents intended for legal transactions abroad require official certification, which may take the form of:
Apostille – when the documents are to be intended for legal circulation in countries which are parties to the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents drawn up on 5 October 1961 in The Hague (Journal of Laws of 2005, No. 112, item 938 and 939);
Legalisation – when the documents are to be intended for legal circulation in countries that are not parties to the Hague Convention.
An analogous rule also applies the other way round: foreign public documents intended for legal circulation in Poland require an Apostille or a legalisation clause.
Following Poland’s accession to the Hague Convention, the only action required to certify the authenticity of a signature, the nature in which the person who signed the document acted and, if necessary, the identity of the seal or stamp with which it was affixed, is to enclose an apostille as set out in Article 4 of the Convention. This does not relieve the court of the obligation to examine whether a document bearing an apostille satisfies, as defined in the law of the country in which the document was drawn up, the requirements as to the form of the legal act in question (so: answer of the Supreme Court to the legal question in Supreme Court case III CZP 21/07).
It can therefore be said that the apostille or legalisation does not establish the reliability of the document, but only confirms the authenticity of the signature/seal affixed to the document.
Not every document can be issued with an apostille immediately. Often, prior authentication is also needed.
Examples of apostille
Attachment of an Apostille or legalisation is not required if national law or a bilateral agreement between states has abolished legalisation or exempted a certain group of documents from legalisation.