Partijen en gegevens

With regard to the third sentence of article 8 of the Convention, the Federal Republic of Germany declares that it reserves the right to continue to require legalisation of extracts from civil status records from a new Contracting State after its accession if there are factual indications that:

The Embassy deems it advisable to inform the Federal Department that Spain considers that the ‘Declaration’ submitted by the Federal Republic of Germany on the third sentence of article 8 of International Commission on Civil Status (ICCS) Convention No. 16 is in reality a reservation; and under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 23 May 1969, a State can make a reservation when signing, ratifying, accepting, approving or acceding to a treaty.

Given that the Federal Republic of Germany's ratification of this Convention took place on 18 June 1997, this reservation has not been made in time. Accordingly, the reservation can only be admissible on the strict condition that it is accepted by all the Contracting States; in the absence of expressed opposition, tacit acceptance may be assumed.

On the other hand, the ‘Declaration’ proves on examination to open the door to the unilateral application of an international instrument, from which undesirable effects may be anticipated. In addition, one must assume that the extracts put in question by the ‘Declaration’ are sent in a secure manner (on security paper, numbered, etc.) that justifies exempting them from legalisation. In the event that circumstances alter the conditions that justified agreement on exempting these documents from legalisation, it would be appropriate to adjust the provisions of the Convention to reflect the new situation by means of a Protocol through a process of multilateral negotiation.

For all these reasons, and within the period laid down by the Depositary, Spain expresses its objection to this reservation, on the grounds that the reservation is compatible neither with the international law of treaties nor with ICCS Convention no. 16, which does not allow for the possibility of restricting the application of article 8 to the Contracting States.

Following the notice given by the depositary on 19 January 2009 (CIEC 1 / 09), the Republic of Serbia informed the depositary on 16 April 2009 that it considers as unacceptable the reservation made by the Federal Republic of Germany to the Convention on the issue of multilingual extracts from civil status records (ICCS Convention no. 16), done at Vienna on 8 September 1976. A copy of the Serbian Note verbale on this subject is appended to the present notice.

The Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands has examined the declaration of the Federal Republic of Germany of 27 November 2008 to the Convention on the issue of multilingual extracts from civil status records and considers it a reservation. The Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands objects to this reservation, since it was made more than eleven years after ratification of the Convention by the Federal Republic of Germany and therefore inconsistent with article 19 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.

In the absence of a unanimous consent of the contracting States, the reservation of the Federal Republic of Germany, following the ratification by that State, cannot be registered by the depositary.