Declarations
Articles:
The instrument of accession was accompanied by the following statement:
"On the occasion of the deposit by the United States of America of its instrument of accession to the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, concluded October 5, 1961 (1961 Convention), the Department of State wishes to draw the attention of States currently Parties to the Convention, and eventually of those becoming so in the future, to the provisions of Title 18, United States Code, Section 3190 relating to documents submitted to the United States Government in support of extradition requests. It does so for the purpose of preventing possible misunderstandings by stipulating that the 1961 Convention does not supersede or override the provisions of Section 3190.
Section 3190 provides:
Section 3190 Evidence on (Extradition) hearing
Depositions, warrants, or other papers or copies thereof offered in evidence upon the hearing of any extradition case shall be received and admitted as evidence on such hearing for all the purposes of such hearing if they shall be properly and legally authenticated so as to entitle them to be received for similar purposes by the tribunals of the foreign country from which the accused party shall have escaped, and the certificate of the principal diplomatic or consular officer of the United States resident in such foreign country shall be proof that the same, so offered, are authenticated in the manner required.
The requirement of Section 3190 is satisfied by the certification of the principal United States diplomatic or consular officer resident in the state requesting extradition that the documents are in such form as to be admissible in the tribunals of that State. The certification by apostille under the 1961 Convention does not satisfy this requirement, as it only certifies the signature, the capacity of the signer, and the seal on the documents. It does not certify the admissibility of the documents. Thus, the requirement of section 3190 is not deemed by the United States to be overridden by operation of Article 8 of the 1961 Convention.
It should be noted, however, that a certification by the principal diplomatic or consular officer of the United States as set out in section 3190 has also served to legalize such documents, and will continue to do so without the need for any other legalization by United States officials or certification by the apostille under the 1961 Convention.
In light of the above, it is recommended that States Party to the 1961 Convention continue as before to cover documents supporting extradition requests directed to the United States with the special certification provided for by section 3190. Failure to cover extradition documents in this recommended manner could regrettably result in a finding by the United States judge or magistrate hearing the extradition request that the documents do not meet the requirements of section 3190 and thus are not entitled to be received and admitted as evidence. Such a finding could, in turn, result in the irrevocable rejection of the extradition request."