Any document which is required to submit to official bodies in the territory of a foreign country has no legal force until it is legalized. All official documents issued in one or another country have force only in the territory of that country; outside the same these documents will not have any force. That is what the legalization of documents serves for validation of them outside the country where execution and issue of documents took place.
Several methods of legalization of documents exist and application of one or another method depends on the fact in what country one or another document is submitted. In case if the state is a member of the Hague Convention 1961, then the procedure of legalization comes to apostil stamping, namely apostilization. Otherwise, the council legalization is executed, this procedure is carried out in the consular department of that country for which this document is indented for.
The Hague Convention gives the following definition of legalization: formal procedure used by diplomatic or consular agents of the country in which territory the document is to be submitted, for certification of authenticity of signature, quality, in which a person acted who signed the document, and in appropriate case the authenticity of seal or stamp by which this document was sealed.