01.01.2018
When filing a foreign public document with a Czech authority or a Czech court, you will in most cases need to translate it officially to Czech language and also to have it apostilled or superlegalized (depending on the country of origin of such document) in order to be accepted by the given authority.
What are the differences between these two verifications?
Apostille is a type of higher verification of a document required for international acceptance of public documents. An Apostille is needed when using a document in other country, e.g. diplomas, birth certificates, deeds, extracts from registers, powers of attorney, etc. Thus if a foreign document is submitted for official purposes, and it was issued by a state that has acceded to “The Hague Convention Abolishing The Requirements Of Legalization For Foreign Public Documents” from 1961 (the “Apostille Convention”), objective of which was to reduce the requirements of diplomatic or consular legalization; this document must then have an Apostille affixed to it and be officially translated into Czech language. Each country designated its competent authorities which issue an Apostille. The list of the authorities can be found at the web page of the Apostille Convention including the list of countries which are parties of the Apostille convention: http://www.hcch.net. It can be a ministry, a court or other state authority.
Documents from countries which are not party to the Apostille convention have to be superlegalized, i.e. they need diplomatic or consular legalization so that they can be used abroad (e.g. in the Czech Republic documents from Canada, Pakistan, Vietnam, etc.). The superlegalization is a higher verification of a document legalized and authentified in the country of origin, e.g. in case a notary legalizes a signature on a Power of Attorney, a state organ first authentifies the stamp of a notary, and the Czech Embassy then superlegalizes such state authentification. Therefore, first step is notarization (by a notary public), second is the authentication (by the state organ/agency that holds records of registered notaries public) and third is superlegalization. The superlegalization is done at the Czech Embassy, which by means of a stamp, verifies that the document was issued by a relevant authorized organ.
In case Czech Republic has a signed Agreement on Legal Assistance in Civil and Family Affairs with another state, public documents issued by authorities of one party to this Agreement do not usually need higher verification, i.e. Apostille or superlegalization, and can be used in proceedings before Czech authorities or Czech courts. Such document only needs an official translation into Czech language.
Contact:
JUDr. Mojmír Ježek, Ph.D. partner
ECOVIS ježek, law firm
t: +420 226 236 600
e: mojmir.jezek@ecovislegal.cz
About ECOVIS ježek advokátní kancelář s.r.o.:
The law office ECOVIS ježek practices mainly in the area of commercial law, real estate law, dispute management, as well as finance and banking law, and provides full-fledged advice in all areas, making it a suitable alternative for clients of international law offices. The international dimension of the services provided is ensured through past experience and through co-operation with leading legal offices in most European countries, the US, and other jurisdictions. The members of the ECOVIS ježek team have many years of experience from leading international law offices and tax companies, in providing legal advice to multinational corporations, large Czech companies, but also to medium-sized companies and individual clients. For more information, go to www.ecovislegal.cz.
