The Legal Status of Foreign Official Documents Used as Evidence in Romania

The article titled “The Legal Regime of Foreign Official Documents Used as Evidence in Romania,” written by Associate Professor Șerban-Alexandru Stănescu, Ph.D., of the Faculty of Law at the University of Bucharest, was published in A.U.B.D. – Legal Forum No. 2/2026.
Official documents sometimes form the basis of rights acquired by parties abroad, which may mean that, in order to enforce them in Romania, they must be presented to Romanian authorities.
Based on this reality, this study has two objectives. First, it analyzes the legal mechanisms established at the national and international levels for certifying, in the forum state, the official nature of documents drawn up in another country and, at the same time, for overcoming the obstacle that the principle of national sovereignty might pose to the recognition of the effects arising from such official status. Second, the article examines the scope of the effects that foreign official documents produce in Romania, specifically the probative value they hold with respect to the legal situation they reflect.