Office of the Historian

Minister Beaupré to the Secretary of State.

American Legation,
Buenos Aires, October 8, 1906.
No. 428.]

Sir: I have the honor herewith to transmit a copy of a convention as ratified by the executive, made between this country and Spain, whereby the requirement that the signatures of functionaries acting in matters civil or criminal that come before the courts of the respective countries through their diplomatic agents be legalized is done away with. This copy is taken from the “Boletin Oficial” (Official Bulletin), No. 3862, of the 21st ultimo, when it is published for the first time, I believe, Though signed on September 17, 1902, and approved by congress on July 31, 1903, with the approval in due course of President Boca during the ministry of Dr. J. V. Gonzales, it was not ratified by this Government until the 3d ultimo, and is not in consequence included in Volume III of the collected treaties of this country (Tratados Convenciones, Protocolos y demás Actos In-ternacionales Vigentes Celebrados por la Republica Argentina—Tomo Tercero—Buenos Aires, 1905), of which copies were recently sent to the department. The formal exchange of ratifications was made on the 17th ultimo.

I accompany the above-mentioned copy of the ratification of said convention with a translation.

I am, etc.,

A. M. Beaupré.
[Inclosure.]
[Translated from the “Boletin Oficial,” No. 3862, of September 21, 1906.]

ministry of foreign affairs.

Convention celebrated between the Argentine Republic and the Kingdom of Spain for the suppression of the legalization of the signatures of the functionaries that intervene in the fulfillment of rogatory commissions in civil or criminal matters.

José Figueroa Alcorta, constitutional President of the Argentine Republic.

To all those who see these presents, greetings:

Whereas between the Argentine Republic and the Kingdom of Spain there was negotiated, concluded, and signed in the city of Buenos Aires on the 17th day of the month of September of year 1902 by the plenipotentiaries of the [Page 15] Argentine Republic and of the Kingdom of Spain, duly authorized to that end, a convention by which is suppressed the legalization of the signatures of the functionaries that intervene in the fulfillment of rogatory commissions that in matters civil and criminal come before the tribunals of the two countries through their respective diplomatic agents the tenor of which is as follows:

Met in the ministry for foreign affairs and worship of the Argentine Republic, H. E., the minister of that department, Dr. Luis M. Drago and H[is] h[onor] the chargé d’affaires of Spain, Don José Caro y Szeschenyi, for the purpose of exchanging ideas in regard to simplifying the requirements for the validifying the rogatory commissions that arise in the one or the other country, and after communicating their full powers, which were found in order and due form, have agreed upon the following:

Article I.

Rogatory commissions in matters civil or criminal directed by the tribunals of the Argentine Republic to those of the Kingdom of Spain or by those of the Kingdom of Spain to those of the Argentine Republic and pursued by the intermediation of the diplomatic agents, shall not need to give them credit the legalization of the signatures of the functionaries that intervene for their fulfillment.

Article II.

The present convention shall have indefinite duration but [it] shall be possible for each one [of] the contracting parties to revoke it provided that [it] is denounced one year in advance, and it may also be modified by common accord in such manner as may be considered opportune.

Article III.

The exchange of ratifications of this convention shall be made in the city of Buenos Aires as soon as possible.

In faith in which the respective plenipotentiaries sign and seal it in duplicate in the city of Buenos Aires the 17th day of the month of September of the year 1902.

  • Luis M. Drago.
  • José Caro.

Law.

  • Article I. The convention signed at Buenos Aires the seventeenth of September, one thousand nine hundred and two, by the plenipotentiaries of the Argentine Republic and of the Kingdom of Spain, duly authorized for that purpose, suppressing the legalization of signatures of the functionaries that intervene in the fulfillment of rogatory commissions that in matters civil or criminal come before the tribunals of the two countries through their respective diplomatic agents is approved.
  • Article II. Let it be communicated to the executive.

Given in the hall of session of the Argentine Congress in Buenos Aires the thirty-first of July, one thousand nine hundred and three.

N. Quirno Costa.

B. Ocampo,
Secretary of the Senate.

Benito Villanueva.

A. M. Tallaferro,
Secretary of the Chamber of Deputy.

Therefore: let it be law of the nation, let it be published in the Official Bulletin and given to the National Registry.

Roca.

J. V. Gonzales.

Therefore: the above transcribed convention having been seen and examined and having been approved by the national congress, by law No. 4188, of July 31, [Page 16] 1903, I accept, confirm and ratify it promising and obliging myself in the name of the nation to observe it and to have it faithfully observed.

In faith in which I sign with my hand the present instrument of ratification, sealed with the great seal of the arms of the Argentine Republic and countersigned by the minister of the department of foreign affairs and worship.

Given in the city of Buenos Aires, capital of the Argentine Republic, on the third day of the month of September, one thousand nine hundred and six.

Figueroa Alcorta.

M. A. Montes de Oca.

Met in the ministry of foreign affairs and worship of the Argentine Republic Dr. Manuél Augusto Montes de Oca, minister of that department, and Señor Don Ramiro Gil de Uribarri y Osorio, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of His Majesty the King of Spain, with the subject of proceeding to exchange the ratifications of the convention signed in the city of Buenos Aires on September 17, 1902, by the minister of foreign affairs and worship of the Argentine Republic, Dr. Don Luis Maria Drago, and the chargé d’affaires of Spain, Señor Don José Caro y Szichanyi, for the suppression of the legalization of the signatures of the functionaries that intervene in the fulfillment of rogatory commissions that in matters civil and criminal come before the tribunals of the two countries through the respective diplomatic agents, they exhibited their full powers, which were found in good and due form, and after having read the instruments of ratification presented, containing the text of the convention referred to, which they found to conform to the respective originals, verified the exchange in the usual form.

The plenipotentiaries above mentioned arranged for the preparation of the present act, which they signed and sealed in duplicate in the city of Buenos Aires on the 17th day of September of the year 1906.

  • M. A. Montes de Oca.
  • Ramiro Gil de Uribarri.