The Cabinet Council published in Official Gazette No. 30642 of October 26, 2026 three resolutions dated October 20, 2026 that open the legislative process for three treaties of the Hague Conference on Private International Law. According to the recitals, the Minister of Foreign Affairs presented the bills at that Cabinet session.

Article 1 of Cabinet Resolution No. 119 authorizes proposing the approval of the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters, done at The Hague on November 15, 1965. Article 1 of Resolution No. 120 does the same for the Convention on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters, of March 18, 1970, and that of Resolution No. 121 for the Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance, of November 23, 2007. All three invoke paragraph 9 of Article 184 and subparagraph b of paragraph 1 of Article 165 of the Political Constitution, and their Article 3 provides that they take effect upon promulgation.

The titles of the conventions define their scope: sending claims and notices to another country, taking evidence outside the territory, and collecting maintenance payments between States. For companies with contracts, debtors or assets abroad, these instruments usually shorten the processing of letters rogatory. In the maritime sector, the 1965 convention already appears in Panamanian law: Article 13 of the United Nations Convention on the International Effects of Judicial Sales of Ships, approved through Bill 240, signed into law on October 15, 2025, governs notice of those sales between States that are also parties to that convention. In family matters, the 2007 convention could make it easier to collect maintenance from debtors living outside the country; Panama already approved, through Law 22 of 1993, the Hague convention on international child abduction.

The resolutions do not approve the treaties. The bills must be submitted, approved in three debates and signed into law, and Panama must then complete accession or ratification before the conventions take effect with respect to other States. Nexo Capital will follow the submission of the three bills to the National Assembly.

Research assisted by Sentinel, with editorial verification of official sources. Discover Legislat.ai