Section 84: How Uganda courts accept foreign private documents
84.Presumption as to private documents executed outside Uganda
The court shall presume that private documents purporting to be executed out of Uganda were so executed and were duly authenticated if—
(a)in the case of such a document executed in the United Kingdom, the document purports to be authenticated by a notary public under his or her signature and seal of office;
(b)in the case of such a document executed, elsewhere than in the United Kingdom, in the Republic of Ireland or in any country of the Commonwealth outside Africa, it purports to be authenticated by the signature and seal of office of the mayor of any town or of a notary public or of the permanent head of any government department in the Republic of Ireland or in any such country of the Commonwealth;
(c)in the case of such a document executed in any country of the Commonwealth in Africa, the document purports to be authenticated by the signature and seal of office of any notary public, resident magistrate, permanent head of a government department, or resident commissioner or assistant commissioner in or of any such country, and, in addition, in the case of a document executed in Kenya, it purports to be authenticated under the hand of any magistrate or head of a government department;
(d)in the case of such a document executed in any place outside the Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland (in this section described as a foreign place), it purports to be authenticated by the signature and seal of office—
(i)of a foreign service officer of Uganda or of a British consul or diplomatic agent in such foreign place; or
(ii)of any secretary of state, undersecretary of state, governor, colonial secretary, or any other person in that foreign place who shall be shown by the certificate of the consul or diplomatic agent of that foreign place in or for Uganda to be duly authorised under the law of that foreign place to authenticate the document;
(e)in the case of such a document executed in any part of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland, which affects or relates to property not exceeding in amount or value equivalent to forty-eight currency points, there purports to be appended to or endorsed on the document, a statement signed by a magistrate or a justice of the peace of the part of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland in which the document is executed—
(i)that the person executing the document is a person known to him or her; or
(ii)that two other persons (known to him or her) have severally testified before him or her that the person executing the document is a person known to each of them.
Plain English Summary
A court in Uganda will automatically treat a private document that was signed outside Uganda as properly executed and authenticated, if it meets certa...
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