Those documents that come from certain entities and have all the necessary details are recognized as official. At the same time, in the theory of law, there are several approaches to the definition of an official document.
Determination of the signs of an official document is of great importance for the branch of criminal law, since it is in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation that there are corpus delicti associated with this concept. In the theory of criminal law, two main approaches are used to decipher the term "official document".
The first approach is considered narrow and links official documents to their sources of origin. In accordance with this theory, only those documents that come from state, municipal bodies can be official. More popular now is the broad approach, according to which official documents can come from the public, commercial or even the private sector, that is, the source of their origin does not matter.
Proper registration and certification
One of the main features of an official document is its correct execution and certification. If certain rules for processing documents are provided for in regulatory legal acts, then the official document must comply with them (for example, the rules for notarization of documents, rules for issuing powers of attorney).
If there are no special rules, then for the document to be recognized as official, it is sufficient to comply with the general requirements for its registration. Usually, these requirements include the condition that all the required details are present (seal, signature, stamp of a certain type, official or letterhead).
Content signs of an official document
The correct execution and certification of an official document is its formal sign, however, in the current judicial practice, the presence of a meaningful sign is also recognized as a prerequisite. The indicated sign is that an official document must influence legal relations in a certain way. It can create certain rights or impose specific responsibilities.
In addition, some official documents certify legal facts that entail the occurrence of certain consequences (this property is possessed by most procedural documents). The unity of formal and substantive features, each of which must be present in an official document, forms a modern interpretation of this concept in legal theory and practice.
