CONSULS

“Officer appointed by a sending State to perform consular duties in receiving State.”

CONSULATE
• It is an office established by one State in an
important city of another State for the purpose
of supporting and protecting its citizens
traveling or residing there.
• These offices are charged with performing
other important administrative duties such as
issuing visas to host country nationals wishing
to travel to the country the consulate
represents.
KINDS OF CONSULS:
• A. Consules missi - are professional and career consuls, and
nationals of the appointing State.
• B. Consules electi - are selected by the appointing State either
from its own citizens or from among nationals abroad.
RANKS OF CONSULS:
• A.Consul General – who heads several
consular districts, or one exceptionally large
consular district.
• B.Consul – who takes charge of a small district
or town or port.
• C.Vice Consul – who assists the consul.
• D.Consular Agent – who is usually entrusted
with the performance of certain functions by
the consul.
APPOINTMENT OF CONSULS
• Two important documents necessary before
the assumption of consular functions:
1.Letters patent – which is transmitted by the
sending State to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs
of the country where the consul is to serve; and
2.Exequatur – which is the authorization given to
the consul by the sovereign of the receiving
State, allowing him to exercise his function
within the territory.
Question: May the head of a consular post enter upon his
duties before he has received exequatur?
Answer: As a general rule, no. The head of the consular
shall not enter upon his duties until he has received his
exequatur.
Exceptions:
1. When the head of the consular post is provisionally
admitted; and
2. When a consul is acting provisionally as head of the
consular post when the head of the consular post is
unable to carry out his functions or when the position of
the consular post is vacant.
IMMUNITIES AND PRIVELEGES
1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations:
1. Consuls are allowed freedom of communication in cipher
or otherwise;
2. Inviolability of archives, but not of the premises where
legal processes may be served and arrests made;
3. Exempt from local jurisdiction for offenses committed in
the discharge of official functions, but not other offenses
except minor infractions;
4. Exempt form testifying on official communications or on
matters pertaining to consular functions;
5. Exempt from taxes; and
6. May display their national flag and emblem in the
consulate.
NOTE: These immunities and privileges are also
available to the members of the consular post,
their families and their private staff. Waiver of
immunities may be made by the appointing State.
TERMINATION OF CONSULAR MISSION

• Usual modes of termination:

1. withdrawal of the exequatur; or
2. extinction of the State; or
3. if there is a war.

NOTE: Severance of consular relations does

NOT necessarily terminate diplomatic relations.
RELATED QUESTIONS
QUESTION:
May a diplomatic mission perform consular
functions?
ANSWER:
YES. Under article 3(2) of the Vienna Convention
on Diplomatic Consular Relations states, “ Nothing
in the present Convention shall be construed as
preventing the performance of consular functions by
a diplomatic mission.”
QUESTION:
May a Consular officer perform a diplomatic acts?
ANSWER:
YES. In a State where the sending State has no
diplomatic mission and is not represented by a
diplomatic mission of a third State, a consular officer
may, with the consent of the receiving State, and
without affecting his consular status, be authorized to
perform diplomatic acts.
QUESTION:
May a consular officer who was authorized by the
receiving State to perform diplomatic acts be
entitled to diplomatic immunity?
ANSWER:
NO. The performance of diplomatic acts by a
consular officer shall not confer upon him any right
to claim diplomatic privileges and immunities.
QUESTION:
When the receiving State declares a consular officer
persona non grata, is it obliged to give the sending
State the reason for its decision?
ANSWER:
NO. The receiving State is not obliged to the
sending State reasons for its decision.
(VCCR,ART.23[4])
QUESTION:
What is the right of Consular notification?
ANSWER:
A national of the sending State who is arrested or
committed to prison or to custody pending trial or is
detained in any other manner shall be informed, without
delay, that if he so requests, the competent authorities of
the receiving State shall, without delay, inform the
consular post of the sending State about his arrest or
detention to allow its consular officers to exercise their
right to visit their national, to converse and correspond
with him, and to arrange for his legal representation.