On November 2, 2020, the Singapore's Parliament passed the Apostille Bill. This Bill introduces the obligations under the 1961 Hague Convention, which seeks to abolish the requirements of legalisation for foreign public documents. This facilitates the cross-border use of official documents by eliminating the requirements of legalisation for public documents of contracting parties.
Cross-border activities often involve the use of documents issued by government agencies of one state in another jurisdiction. For example, companies seeking to purchase property abroad may be required to provide incorporation documents. Many states require foreign official documents to be legalized before they are recognized and accepted in these states. Legalisation involves a multi-step process in which a signature, seal, or stamp on a document is verified as genuine by a number of government officials until this authentication is recognized by a foreign state. This process can be complicate, costly, and labor intensive.
The Hague Apostille Convention replaces the legalisation process with a one-step procedure in which a single certificate (namely apostille) is issued by the competent authority designated by the state. When Singapore becomes a member of the Apostille Convention in 2021, other participating countries will have to waive the requirements of legalisation for foreign public documents issued by the Singapore authorities. Instead, they must accept an apostille issued by the designated competent authority. Likewise, Singapore authorities may have to accept the apostille instead of legalisation for incoming foreign government documents from other contracting parties.
The new Bill identifies the Singapore Law Academy as the competent authority in Singapore under the Hague Apostille Convention and empowers the Academy to affix an apostille to Singapore government documents. Currently, the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs performs the function of legalizing documents. The Bill transfers the function of legalisation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Singapore Law Academy.
