2023年3月8日，中国加入《取消外国公文书认证要求的公约》（以下简称《公约》），2023年11月7日该《公约》在中国生效实施。自此之后，外国公文书在境内使用还需要进行领事认证吗？下文我们将通过对《取消外国公文书认证要求的公约》的介绍来解答此问题。

Dated 8th March 2023, the People's Public of China (PRC) acceded to CONVENTION ABOLISHING THE REQUIREMENT OF LEGALISATION FOR FOREIGN PUBLIC DOCUMENTS (the Convention). On 7th November 2023, the Convention entered into force in PRC. Afterwards, will consular legalisation still be required for the use of foreign public documents in PRC? In the following of this article, we will answer this question by introducing the Convention.

一、《公约》适用的文书范围

I. Scope of Applicable Documents under the Convention

《公约》第一条第一款规定了适用的文书范围，即在一缔约国领土内制作，且需要在另一缔约国领土内出示的公文书。

Paragraph 1, Article 1 of the Convention sets out the scope of applicable documents, i.e. the 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.

（一）缔约国

(i) Contracting States

1．文书的制作国和出示国，都应当是《公约》的缔约国。截至2024年1月20日，《公约》缔约国共125个，约占全世界国家的五分之三，具体名单可见海牙国际司法协会官网信息。

1. Both the State where the document is produced and the State where the document is presented should be the Contracting States to the Convention. As of 1st Jan 2024, there are 125 Contracting States to the Convention, which makes up 3/5 of the world's countries. The specific list of State Members shall be seen in the official website of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH).

2．关于中国与印度。根据《公约》第十二条第三款，公约只在加入国与对其加入不持异议的国家之间生效。中国在加入《公约》时，因印度反对中国加入，故即使印度和中国同为缔约国，两国间仍不适用《公约》。

2. About PRC and India. According to paragraph 3 Article 12 of the Convention, the Convention 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. However, at the time of PRC's accession to the Convention, India raised its objection so the Convention shall not have effect between India and PRC even though both are Contracting States.

3．关于香港、澳门。根据《公约》第十三条第一款，任何国家可在签署、批准或加入该公约时声明，该公约扩展适用于由其负责国际关系的一处、几处或全部领土。英国和葡萄牙在加入《公约》时，已将其适用范围分别扩大到香港特别行政区和澳门特别行政区，因此，《公约》分别于1965年4月25日和1969年2月4日在香港特别行政区和澳门特别行政区生效。香港、澳门回归时，根据《中华人民共和国香港特别行政区基本法》及《中华人民共和国澳门特别行政区基本法》等规定，原来适用于香港、澳门特别行政区的《公约》继续适用。2023年3月8日，中国加入《公约》时，再次声明《公约》继续适用于香港 、澳门；同时也声明，《公约》不适用于中国不承认为主权国家的缔约国与中国之间，该声明也同样适用于香港、澳门。因此，中国大陆与香港、澳门之间也不适用《公约》。

3. About Hong Kong Special Administration Region (HK) and Macau Special Administration Region (Macau). According to paragraph 1 Article 13 of the Convention, 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. Upon the United Kingdom (UK)'s and Portugal's accession to the Convention, it has extended to HK and Macau respectively; and therefore, the Convention entered into force when the accession of HK was signed and ratified by UK on 25th April 1965 while the accession of Macau was signed and ratified by Portugal on 4th Feb 1969. After the reunion between PRC and HK as well as PRC and Macau, subject to the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region of the People's Republic of China (HK Basic Law) and the Basic Law of the Macau Special Administration Region of the People's Republic of China (Macau Basic Law), the Convention continued to apply in HK and Macau as it used to do. On 8th March 2023 when PRC acceded to the Convention, PRC declared that the Convention would still apply to HK and Macau. However, PRC also declared that the Convention would not apply to any Contracting State which PRC did not recognize as a sovereign State, as between this Contracting State and PRC; and this declaration would apply to HK and Macau. As a result, the Convention does not apply between the Chinese mainland and HK, nor does it apply between  the Chinese mainland and Macau.

（二）公文书

(ii) Public Documents

仅公文书，而非所有的文书都适用于公约。

Just only public documents, not all documents, are applicable to the Convention.

1．《公约》第一条第二款列明了以下四类文书为公文书：

1. Paragraph 2, Article 1 of the Convention categorizes four kinds of documents as public documents.

（1）与一国法院或法庭相关的机关或官员出具的文书，包括由检察官、法院书记员或司法执行员（“执达员”）出具的文书。

a) documents emanating 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");

(2）行政文书。典型的行政文书如公司登记、知识产权登记、许可证书等。

b) administrative documents, typically including company registrations, IP registrations, licenses and etc;

（3）公证文书。

c) notarial acts;

（4）对以私人身份签署的文件的官方证明，如对文件的登记或在特定日期存在的事实进行记录的官方证明，以及对签名的官方和公证证明。

d) official certificates 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.

2．同时，《公约》第一条第三款规定，公约不适用于：

2. Meanwhile, Paragraph 3, Article 1 of the Convention provides that it shall not apply:

（1）外交或领事人员制作的文书。实践中，外交或领事人员做成的文书被视为已经证明的文书，本身就得到各国认可，故《公约》没必要适用该类文书。

a) to documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents. In practice, documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents are regarded as certified documents, which are recognized by the countries. So there is no need for the Convention to apply to such documents.

（2）直接处理商业或海关运作的行政文书。这是世界贸易组织简化认证的要求，如签发国最常用的原产地证书或进出口许可证，在实践中往往不需要对这类文书的签字或盖章进行认证，而需要进一步对实质内容进行核实，故该类文书的认证没必要适用《公约》。

b) to administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations. This is a requirement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) for simplified authentication. For example, certificates of origin or licences of import and export, which are most commonly used by the issuing country, and in practice it is often not necessary to authenticate the signatures or stamps of such documents, but rather to further verify the substance. Therefore, authentication of this type of documents is not necessary for the application of the Convention.

二、《公约》规定的免除认证及附加证明书

II. Exemption from Legalisation and Additional Certificates (Apostille) according to the Convention

（一）免除认证

(i) Exemption from Legalisation

《公约》第二条规定，缔约国对适用该公约且需在其领土内出示的文书应免除认证要求。该认证仅指文书出示地国的外交或领事人员为证明签名的真实性、文书签署人签署时的身份，以及在需要时为确认文书上的印鉴属实而履行的手续。该认证即我们通常所说的“领事认证”。

Article 2 of the Convention provides that each Contracting State shall exempt from legalisation documents to which the present Convention applies and which have to be produced in its territory. Legalisation refers only to the formalities performed by the diplomatic or consular officer of the State in which the document is presented to certify the authenticity of the signature, the identity of the person or persons at the time of signing, and, if necessary, to verify the authenticity of any seal or signatures affixed thereto. This legalisation is what we usually called, the consular legalisation.

领事认证模式下，通常情况，境外制作的文书到中国出示使用，需在制作国外交部门办理认证后，再到中国驻该国使领馆办理领事认证；中国境内制作的文书出境出示使用，需经中国外交部相关部门办理认证后，再到文书出示国驻华使领馆办理领事认证。若中国与该国未建立外交关系，则可能导致连锁认证，即文书制作国领事认证后，先由与文书制作国及出示国共同建交的第三国驻制作国的使领馆认证后，再由出示国驻第三国的使领馆认证；若文书制作国与出示国无共同建交的第三国的，还可能导致多重连锁认证，每个步骤都需要耗费时间及费用。

Under "consular legalisation" mode, generally, the extraterritorial-produced documents to be presented and used in PRC shall go through legalisation by diplomatic service of the producing country and then go through consular legalisation by the consulate general of PRC in that country. On the other hand, the documents produced in PRC to be presented and used overseas shall go through legalisation by relevant department in Ministry of Foreign Affairs of PRC and then go through consular legalisation by embassy or consulate of the country in PRC. If PRC has not established diplomatic relation with the producing country, it may cause chain legalisation, which means, consular legalisation in the producing country is first legalised by the embassy or consulate of a third country in the producing country that has established diplomatic relations with both presenting country and the producing country, and then legalised by the embassy or consulate of the producing country in the third country. If the producing country and the presenting country does not have a common diplomatic relation of any third country, it may also lead to multiple chain legalisation, each step of which may be time-consuming and costly.

根据《公约》第二条的规定，自2023年11月7日《公约》对我国生效实施后，我国已就国内制作、出境到其他《公约》缔约国出示使用，或者来源于其他《公约》缔约国、入境到中国使用的公文书，停止办理领事认证。我国与非《公约》缔约国之间，仍沿用原有领事认证程序。

Subject to Article 2 of the Convention, since the Convention entered into force in PRC on 7th November 2023, PRC has stopped processing consular legalisation for public documents produced domestically, exported to other contracting states of the Convention for presentation and use, or sourced from other contracting states of the Convention and used in China. The original consular legalisation procedure is still followed between PRC and non-contracting states of the Convention.

（二）附加证明书

(ii) Additional Certificates (Apostille)

《公约》第三条规定，为证明签名的真实性、文书签署人签署时的身份，以及在需要时为确认文书上的印鉴属实，仅可能需要办理的手续是文书出具国主管机关签发第四条规定的附加证明书。如根据文书出示地国现行法律、法规或惯例，或者根据两个或多个缔约国间的协定，前款所指手续已被取消或简化，或者已免除对文书的认证，则不得要求履行前款所规定的手续。

Article 3 of the Convention provides that, in order to prove the authenticity of a signature, the identity of the signatory when signing the instrument, and to confirm the authenticity of the seal on the document, if necessary, the only possible formalities are the additional certificate issued by the competent authorities of the country where the document is issued as provided in Article 4. It may not be required to comply with the formalities referred to in the preceding paragraph if, in accordance with the laws, regulations or customs in force in the State in which the document is presented, or by an agreement between two or more Contracting States, the formalities referred to in the preceding paragraph have been eliminated or simplified, or the document has been exempted from legalisation.

《公约》第八条规定，如果两个或多个缔约国间的条约、公约或协定规定对签名或印鉴应履行某种证明手续，则本公约仅在这些手续较第三条、第四条规定的手续更严格的情况下优先适用。

Article 8 of the Convention provides that, if a treaty, convention or agreement between two or more Contracting States stipulates that certain formalities of proof for signatures or seals shall be followed, the Convention takes precedence only if these formalities are more stringent than those stipulated in Articles 3 and 4.

也就是说，免除领事认证后，缔约国之间公文书的流转使用至多需办理的手续是附加证明书，如果缔约国之间另有约定取消或简化手续的，应当按照更为简单的方式进行。

That is to say, after the exemption from consular legalisation, the formalities required for the circulation and use of official documents between contracting states are the additional certification at most; where the elimination or simplification of formalities is otherwise agreed upon by the contracting states, a simpler method shall apply.

1. 附加证明书的出具主体。根据《公约》第三条及第六条的规定，附加证明书的出具机关为公文书出具国的主管机关，各缔约国在加入《公约》时已指定主管机关并通知荷兰外交部，通过海牙国际司法协会网站可以查询。

1. Issuing Party. In accordance with the provisions of Article 3 and Article 6 of the Convention, the authorities responsible for issuing the additional certificate shall be the competent authorities of the state where the public document is issued. The competent authorities have been designated by the Contracting States when they accede to the Convention and have been notified to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. They can be found through the website of the HCCH.

2. 附加证明书仅证明公文书上最后一个印鉴、签名属实，以及在需要时确认文书上的印鉴属实，不对公文书内容本身的真实性和合法性负责。公文书内容真实性仍遵循“谁出具，谁负责”原则。

2. The additional certificate is only for proving the authenticity of the last seal or signature on the notarial documents and, where necessary, for confirming the authenticity of the seal signatures on the documents, and is not responsible for the authenticity and legality of the contents of the notarial documents themselves. The authenticity of the contents of notarial documents shall still be subject to the doctrine of "whoever issues the documents shall be responsible".

3. 中国境内制作的公文书申请附加证明书的程序、收费、办理机构、办理时间等信息，详见中国领事服务网。

3. Detailed information such as the procedures, fees, authorities and duration of the application for additional certificate of notarial documents prepared in China can be found through the website of Consular Service of PRC.

总结：

Summary:

根据上文分析，文首问题的答案已经跃然纸上，即《公约》在我国生效实施后，并非所有外国公文书都无需进行领事认证，需要根据文书的种类、文书制作国与出示国的缔约情况等综合判断。此外，由于不同国家对外国公文书的格式、内容、时限、翻译有具体要求，办妥附加证明书不代表该公文书必然被用文单位接受，建议聘请专业律师顾问提供帮助和指导办理有关手续。

According to the above analysis, the answer to the question at the beginning of our article is obvious. That is, though the Convention has come into force in China, some foreign public documents are still required to be legalised. A comprehensive judgment needs to be made based on the type of document and the contracting conditions of the country where the document is presented and the country where the document is produced. In addition, as different countries have specific requirements concerning the format, content, time limit and translation of foreign official documents, the proper issuance of the additional certificate does not necessarily represent the acceptance of such documents by units using such documents. It is suggested to engage professional lawyers or consultants to provide assistance and guidance on going through relevant procedures.