Declarations
Notifications
Reservations

Articles: 8,18,23,27,33

Under the following reservation:

"... in accordance with the provisions of Article 33 the United Kingdom will not accept a Letter of Request in French.",

(...)

and the following declarations:

"1. In accordance with Article 8 Her Majesty's Government declare that members of the judicial personnel of the requesting authority may be present at the execution of a Letter of Request.
2. In accordance with Article 18 Her Majesty's Government declare that a diplomatic officer, consular agent or commissioner authorized to take evidence under Articles 15, 16 and 17 may apply to the competent authority designated hereinbefore for appropriate assistance to obtain such evidence by compulsion provided that the Contracting State whose diplomatic officer, consular agent or commissioner makes the application has made a declaration affording reciprocal facilities under Article 18.
3. In accordance with Article 23 Her Majesty's Government declare that the United Kingdom will not execute Letters of Request issued for the purpose of obtaining pre-trial discovery of documents. Her Majesty's Government further declare that Her Majesty's Government understand "Letters of Request issued for the purpose of obtaining pre-trial discovery of documents" for the purposes of the foregoing Declaration as including any Letter of Request which requires a person:
a. to state what documents relevant to the proceedings to which the Letter of Request relates are, or have been, in his possession, custody or power; or
b. to produce any documents other than particular documents specified in the Letter of Request as being documents appearing to the requested court to be, or to be likely to be, in his possession, custody or power.
4. In accordance with Article 27 Her Majesty's Government declare that by the law and practice of the United Kingdom of the prior permission referred to in Articles 16 and 17 is not required in respect of diplomatic officers, consular agents or commissioners of a Contracting State which does not require permission to be obtained for the purposes of taking evidence under Articles 16 or 17."

N.B. By a Note dated 9 February 1995 and received on 21 February 1995, the Embassy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands that, unless otherwise stated, in future the acceptance by the United Kingdom of the accession of any State to the Convention shall also be acceptance in respect of all the territories for the international relations of which the United Kingdom is responsible and to which the application of the Convention has been extended.

In respect of the territories for which the UK is responsible for international relations, the following procedure shall apply: Taking of Evidence requests for Crown Dependencies should be deposited at the UK Embassy in the country which will forward the request to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Legalisation department for forwarding as follows:

  • to Jersey via the Ministry of Justice.
  • to Guernsey, directly
  • to the Isle of Man, directly