The
Governments of the Member States of the Organization of
American States, desirous of concluding a convention on
general rules of private international law, have agreed
as follows:
Article
1: Choice of the applicable rule of law governing
facts connected with foreign law shall be subject to the
provisions of this Convention and other bilateral or multilateral
conventions that have been signed or may be signed in
the future by the States Parties.
In
the absence of an international rule, the States Parties
shall apply the conflict rules of their domestic law.
Article
2: Judges and authorities of the States Parties shall
enforce the foreign law in the same way as it would be
enforced by the judges of the State whose law is applicable,
without prejudice to the parties' being able to plead
and prove the existence and content of the foreign law
invoked.
Article
3: Whenever the law of a State Party has institutions
or procedures essential for its proper application that
are not provided for in the law of another State Party,
this State Party may refuse to apply such a law if it
does not have any like institutions or procedures.
Article
4: All the appeals provided for in the procedural
law of the place where the proceedings are held shall
also be admissible for cases in which the law of any of
the other States Parties is applicable.
Article
5: The law declared applicable by a convention on
private international law may be refused application in
the territory of a State Party that considers it manifestly
contrary to the principles of its public policy (order
public).
Article
6:
The law of a State Party shall not be applied
as foreign law when the basic principles of the law of
another State Party have been fraudulently evaded.
The
competent authorities of the receiving State shall determine
the fraudulent intent of the interested parties.
Article
7: Juridical relationships validly established in
a State Party in accordance with all the laws with which
they have a connection at the time of their establishment
shall be recognized in the other States Parties, provided
that they are not contrary to the principles of their
public policy (order public).
Article
8:
Previous, preliminary or incidental issues that
may arise from a principal issue need not necessarily
be resolved in accordance with the law that governs the
principal issue.
Article
9: The different laws that may be applicable to various
aspects of one and the same juridical relationship shall
be applied harmoniously in order to attain the purposes
pursued by each of such laws. Any difficulties that may
be caused by their simultaneous application shall be resolved
in the light of the requirements of justice in each specific
case.
Article
10: This Convention shall be open for signature by
the Member States of the Organization of American States.
Article
11: This Convention is subject to ratification. The
instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the
General Secretariat of the Organization of American States.Article
12:
This Convention shall remain open for accession
by any other State. The instrument of accession shall
be deposited with the General Secretariat of the Organization
of American States.
Article
13:
Each State may, at the time of signature, ratification,
or accession, make reservations to this Convention provided
that each reservation concerns one or more specific provisions
and is not incompatible with the object and purpose of
the Convention.
Article
14: This Convention shall enter into force on the
thirtieth day following the date of deposit of the second
instrument of ratification.
For
each State ratifying or acceding to the Convention after
the deposit of the second instrument of ratification,
the Convention shall enter into force on the thirtieth
day after deposit by such State of its instrument of ratification
or accession.
Article
15: If a State Party has two or more territorial units
in which different systems of, law apply in relation to
the matters dealt with in this Convention, it may, at
the time of signature, ratification or accession, declare
that this Convention shall extend to all its territorial
units or only to one or more of them.
Such
declaration may be modified by subsequent declarations,
which shall expressly indicate the territorial unit or
units to which the Convention applies. Such subsequent
declarations shall be transmitted to the General Secretariat
of the Organization of American States, and shall become
effective thirty days after the date of their receipt.
Article
16:
This Convention shall remain in force indefinitely,
but any of the States Parties may denounce it. The instrument
of denunciation shall be deposited with the General Secretariat
of the Organization of American States. After one year
from the date of deposit of the instrument of denunciation,
the Convention shall no longer be in effect for the denouncing
State, but shall remain in effect for the other States
Parties.
Article
17: The original instrument of this Convention, the
English, French, Portuguese ' and Spanish texts of which
are equally authentic, shall be deposited with the , General
Secretariat of the Organization of American States, which
will forward an authenticated copy of its text to the
Secretariat of the United Nations for registration and
publication in accordance with Article 102 of its Charter.
The General Secretariat of the Organization of American
States shall notify the Member States of that Organization
and the States that have acceded to the Convention of
the signatures, deposits of instruments of ratification,
accession and denunciation as we11 as of reservations,
if any. It shall also transmit the declarations referred
to in Article 15 of this Convention.
IN
WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned Plenipotentiaries, being
duly authorized thereto by their respective Governments,
have signed this Convention.
DONE
AT MONTEVIDEO, Republic of Uruguay, this eighth day of
May, one thousand nine hundred and seventy-nine.