2 Private Law - Civil Procedure - Enforcement - 25 Civil Procedure - 253 Intercantonal Agreements - CHAPTER ONE Procedural Acts Carried Out at the Request of Another Canton

**1.** The authorities of the signatory cantons communicate directly with each other. The request may be written either in the language of the requesting canton or in that of the requested canton.

**2.** If there is uncertainty about the competent authority, judicial documents and letters rogatory may validly be addressed to a single cantonal authority, as indicated on the list annexed to this concordat.

**3.** When the authority seized finds that the judicial document or the letter rogatory falls within the competence of another authority within its canton, it will transfer it to the competent authority ex officio.

The requested authority applies the law of its canton.

The requested authority shall inform the requesting authority and the parties of the date and place where a hearing or site inspection will take place.

Authorized attorneys or representatives permitted to practice in the canton of the requesting authority may participate in the hearing or site inspection.

1. The requested authority does not charge any fees. It is reimbursed for its actual disbursements.

2. Exceptions are made for agreements between cantons regarding free legal assistance.

Judicial acts may be directly notified by mail to their recipients residing in another concordat canton.

1. Witnesses summoned in a concordat canton are required to appear there, as well as experts who have accepted their mission.

2. Witnesses are summoned in a language that is familiar to them or in the language of the place where they reside.

3. They may demand an appropriate advance for travel expenses.

4. Witnesses and experts are subject to the law of the canton to which the authority summoning them belongs.

1 An authority may also hold a hearing in another canton, conduct or have conducted an inspection of the premises and hearings there.

2. It shall inform in advance the competent authority of that canton, as indicated on the list [1] attached to this concordat.

3. It shall apply the procedure of its own canton.

**1.** The authority of the place where the act is to be executed is solely competent, and its law is applicable for the performance of other acts of instruction, for serving a judicial document through a bailiff, or for seeking the assistance of law enforcement.

**2.** However, a warrant to amend issued against a witness or an expert is enforceable in all concordant cantons, notwithstanding the preceding paragraph, unless the procedure of the requested canton opposes such warrants.

1. Each canton may accede to the concordat. Its declaration of accession, as well as the notifications concerning the list of authorities annexed to the concordat, shall be submitted to the Federal Department of Justice and Police for the attention of the Federal Council.

2. A canton wishing to denounce the concordat must make a declaration to the Federal Department of Justice and Police for the attention of the Federal Council. The denunciation shall only take effect at the end of the calendar year following the year during which it was notified.

1. The concordat enters into force, for the cantons that have concluded it, upon its publication in the Official Collection of Federal Laws and, for the cantons that subsequently join it, upon the publication of their accession in the said collection.

2. The same applies to the list of cantonal authorities and to any additions and modifications that may be made to it.

Concordat approved by the Federal Council on April 15, 1975.