In January 2024, the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court, Guangdong (hereinafter the “Court”), recognized a Finnish divorce judgment at the request of Zhang, applying the “Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents” (hereinafter the “Apostille Convention”) to review the formal requirements of the judgment.The Court issued its decision within 15 days from the filing of the application.
On 16 Jan. 2024, Zhang applied to the Court for recognition of a divorce judgment issued by the Helsinki District Court of Finland, and submitted the judgment and the corresponding apostille certificate.
Upon review, the Court found that the Finnish divorce judgment submitted by the applicant constituted a foreign public document. As the Apostille Convention came into effect in China on 7 Nov. 2023, and that Finland is also a contracting party, the convention shall be applicable in this case. Besides, Zhang had provided the apostille certificate issued by the competent Finnish authority according to the Apostille Convention, thereby authenticating the signatures and seals.
Since the divorce judgment indicated that there were no children or joint property to dealt with by the court, the judgment was legally binding and met the conditions for recognizing foreign divorce judgments under Chinese law, the Court ruled to recognize the Finnish divorce judgment.
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