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Organization of American States
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Additional Protocol
to
the Inter-American Convention on Letters Rogatory |
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»
Full Text
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[summary]  [Annex
A] [Annex B]
[Annex
C]
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The
Governments of the Member States of the Organization of
American States, desirous of strengthening and facilitating
international cooperation in judicial procedures as provided
for in the Inter-American Convention on Letters Rogatory
done in Panama on January 30, 1975, have agreed as follows:
I.
SCOPE OF PROTOCOL
Article
1:
This Protocol shall apply only to those procedural
acts set forth in Article 2 (a) of the Inter-American
Convention on Letters Rogatory, hereinafter referred to
as "the Convention". For the purposes of this
Protocol, such acts shall be understood to mean procedural
acts (pleadings, motions, orders, and subpoenas) that
are served and requests for information that are made
by a judicial or administrative authority of a State Party
to a judicial or administrative authority of another State
Party and are transmitted by a letter rogatory from the
Central Authority of the State of origin to the Central
Authority of the State of destination.
II.
CENTRAL AUTHORITY
Article
2: Each State Party shall designate a central authority
that shall perform the functions assigned to it in the
Convention and in this Protocol. At the time of deposit
of their instruments of ratification or accession to this
Protocol, the States Parties shall communicate the designations
to the General Secretariat of the Organization of American
States, which shall distribute to the States Parties to
the Convention a list containing the designations received.
The Central Authority designated by a State Party in accordance
with Article 4 of the Convention may be changed at any
time. The State Party shall inform the above-mentioned
Secretariat of such change as promptly as possible.
III.
PREPARATION OF LETTERS ROGATORY
Article
3: Letters rogatory shall be prepared on forms that
are printed in the four official languages of the Organization
of American States or in the languages of the State of
origin and of the State of destination and conform to
Form A contained in the Annex to this Protocol.
Letters
rogatory shall be accompanied by the following:
a.
Copy of the complaint or pleading that initiated the action
in which the letter rogatory was issued, as well as a
translation thereof into the language of the State of
destination;
b.
Untranslated copy of the documents attached to the complaint
or pleading;
c.
Untranslated copy of any rulings ordering issuance of
the letter rogatory;
d.
Form conforming to Form B annexed to this Protocol and
containing essential information for the person to be
served or the authority to receive the documents; and
e.
Certificate conforming to Form C annexed to this Protocol
on which the Central Authority of the State of destination
shall attest to execution or non-execution of the letter
rogatory.
The
copies shall be regarded as authenticated for the purposes
of Article 8(a) of the Convention if they bear the seal
of the judicial or administrative authority that issued
the letter rogatory.
A
copy of the letter rogatory together with Form B and the
copies referred to in items a, b, and c of this Article
shall be delivered to the person notified or to the authority
to which the request is addressed. One of the copies of
the letter rogatory and the documents attached to it shall
remain in the possession of the State of destination;
the untranslated original, the certificate of execution
and the documents attached to them shall be returned to
the Central Authority of the State of origin through appropriate
channels.
If
a State Party has more than one official language, it
shall, at the time of signature, ratification or accession
to this Protocol, declare which language or languages
shall be considered official for the purposes of the Convention
and of this Protocol. If a State Party comprises territorial
units that have different official languages, it shall,
at the time of signature, ratification or accession to
this Protocol, declare which language or languages in
each territorial unit shall be considered official for
the purposes of the Convention and of this Protocol The
General Secretariat of the Organization of American States
shall distribute to the States Parties to this Protocol
the information contained in such declarations.
IV.
TRANSMISSION AND PROCESSING OF LETTERS ROGATORY
Article
4: Upon receipt of a letter rogatory from the Central
Authority in another State Party, the Central Authority
in the State of destination shall transmit the letter
rogatory to the appropriate judicial or administrative
authority for processing in accordance with the applicable
local law.
Upon
execution of the letter rogatory, the judicial or administrative
authority or authorities that processed it shall attest
to the execution thereof in the manner prescribed in their
local law, and shall transmit it with the relevant documents
to the Central Authority. The Central Authority of the
State Party of destination shall certify execution of
the letter rogatory to the Central Authority of the State
Party of origin on a form conforming to Form C of the
Annex, which shall not require legalization. In addition,
the Central Authority of the State of destination shall
return the letter rogatory and attached documents to the
Central Authority of the State of origin for delivery
to the judicial or administrative authority that issued
it.
V.
COSTS AND EXPENSES
Article
5:
The processing of letters rogatory by the Central
Authority of the State Party of destination and its judicial
or administrative authorities shall be free of charge.
However, this State Party may seek payment by parties
requesting execution of letters rogatory for those services
which, in accordance with its local law, are required
to be paid for directly by those parties.
The
party requesting the execution of a letter rogatory shall,
at its election, either select and indicate in the letter
rogatory the person who is responsible in the State of
destination for the cost of such services or, alternatively,
shall attach to the letter rogatory a check for the fixed
amount that is specified in Article 6 of this Protocol
for its processing by the State of destination and will
cover the cost of such services or a document proving
that such amount has been transferred by some other means
to the Central Authority of the State of destination.
The
fact that the cost of such services ultimately exceeds
the fixed amount shall not delay or prevent the processing
or execution of the letter rogatory by the Central Authority
or the judicial or administrative authorities of the State
of destination. Should the cost exceed that amount, the
Central Authority of the State of destination may, when
returning the executed letter rogatory, seek payment of
the outstanding amount due from the party requesting execution
of the letter rogatory.
Article
6:
At the time of deposit of its instrument of ratification
or accession to this Protocol with the General Secretariat
of the Organization of American States, each State Party
shall attach a schedule of the services and the costs
and other expenses that, in accordance with its local
law, shall be paid directly by the party requesting execution
of the letter rogatory. In addition, each State Party
shall specify in the above-mentioned schedule the single
amount which it considers will reasonably cover the cost
of such services, regardless of the number or nature thereof.
This amount shall be paid when the person requesting execution
of the letter rogatory has not designated a person responsible
for the payment of such services in the State of destination
but has decided to pay for them directly in the manner
provided for in Article 5 of this Protocol.
The
General Secretariat of the Organization of American States
shall distribute the information received to the States
Parties to this Protocol. A State Party may at any time
notify the General Secretariat of the Organization of
American States of changes in the above-mentioned schedules,
which shall be communicated by the General Secretariat
to the other States Parties to this Protocol.
Article
7: States Parties may declare in the schedules mentioned
in the foregoing articles that, provided there is reciprocity,
they will not charge parties requesting execution of letters
rogatory for the services necessary for executing them,
or will accept in complete satisfaction of the cost of
such services either the single fixed amount specified
in Article 6 or another specified amount.
Article
8:
This Protocol shall be open for signature and
subject to ratification or accession by those Member States
of the Organization of American States that have signed,
ratified, or acceded to the Inter-American Convention
on Letters Rogatory signed in Panama on January 30, 1975.
This
Protocol shall remain open for accession by any other
State that accedes or has acceded to the Inter-American
Convention on Letters Rogatory, under the conditions set
forth in this article.
The
instruments of ratification and accession shall be deposited
with the General Secretariat of the Organization of American
States.
Article
9:
This Protocol shall enter into force on the thirtieth
day following the date on which two States Parties to
the Convention have deposited their instruments of ratification
or accession to this Protocol.
For
each State ratifying or acceding to the Protocol after
its entry into force, the Protocol shall enter into force
on the thirtieth day following deposit by such State of
its instrument of ratification or accession, provided
that such State is a Party to the Convention.
Article
10:
If a State Party has two or more territorial
units in which different systems of law apply in relation
to matters dealt with in this Protocol, it may, at the
time of signature, ratification or accession, declare
that this Protocol shall extend to all its territorial
units or only to one or more of them.
Such
declaration may be modified by subsequent declarations
that shall expressly indicate the territorial unit or
units to which this Protocol applies. Such subsequent
declarations shall be transmitted to the General Secretariat
of the Organization of American States, and shall become
effective thirty days after the date of their receipt.
Article
11: This Protocol shall remain in force indefinitely,
but any of the States Parties may denounce it. The instrument
of denunciation shall be deposited with the General Secretariat
of the Organization of American States. After one year
from the date of deposit of the instrument of denunciation,
the Protocol shall no longer be in effect for the denouncing
State, but shall remain in effect for the other States
Parties.
Article
12: The original instrument of this Protocol and its
Annex (Forms A, B and C), the English, French, Portuguese
and Spanish texts of which are equally authentic, shall
be deposited with the General Secretariat of the Organization
of American States, which will forward an authenticated
copy of the text to the Secretariat of the United Nations
for registration and publication in accordance with Article
102 of its Charter. The General Secretariat of the Organization
of American States shall notify the Member States of that
Organization and the States that have acceded to the Protocol
of the signatures, deposits of instruments of ratification,
accession and denunciation, as well as of reservations,
if any. It shall also transmit to them the information
mentioned in Article 2, the last paragraph of Article
3, and Article 6 and the declarations referred to in Article
10 of this Protocol.
IN
WITNESS WHEREOF
the undersigned Plenipotentiaries, being
duly authorized thereto by their respective Governments,
have signed this Protocol.
DONE
AT MONTEVIDEO, Republic of Uruguay, this eighth day of
May, one thousand nine hundred and seventy-nine.
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