Legalization (international law)

Legalization of a civil status document: A Canadian document is certified at the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and subsequently by the consulate of the receiving state (in this case, the Netherlands)

In international law, legalization is the process of authenticating or certifying a document for a document to be used internationally. so a foreign country's legal system will recognize it. The process is used routinely in international commerce and civil law in some jurisdictions. It is generally performed by validation of the signature on a document by a higher government authority. For example, a school diploma may need to be legalized by evaluation by the Ministry of Education, followed by legalization of the signature of the Ministry of Education by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Once authenticated by the foreign ministry the documents then need to be reviewed and approved by the consular staff of the country in which the transaction is to occur. Often also a certified translation of the original document is required for full legalization.

Apostille treaty

Main article: Apostille treaty

The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents has supplanted the default procedure by a system of apostille. It is available if both the country of the document and the country for which the document are party to the treaty. The apostille is a stamp on which standard validating information is supplied. It is available (dependent on the document) from a notary public or court.