Civil Law Notary
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Civil-law notaries, or Latin notaries, are
lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...
s of noncontentious
private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...
civil law who draft, take, and record
legal instrument Legal instrument is a law, legal term of art that is used for any formally executed written document that can be formally attributed to its author, records and formally expresses a legally enforceable act, process, or contractual duty, obligation ...
s for private parties, provide
legal advice Legal advice is the giving of a professional or formal opinion regarding the substance or procedure of the law in relation to a particular factual situation. The provision of legal advice will often involve analyzing a set of facts and advising a p ...
and give attendance in person, and are vested as public officers with the authentication power of the State. As opposed to most notaries public, their
common-law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prec ...
counterparts, civil-law notaries are highly trained, licensed practitioners providing a full range of regulated legal services, and whereas they hold a public office, they nonetheless operate usually—but not always—in private practice and are paid on a fee-for-service basis. They often receive generally the same education as attorneys at civil law with further specialised education but without qualifications in advocacy,
procedural law Procedural law, adjective law, in some jurisdictions referred to as remedial law, or rules of court, comprises the rules by which a court hears and determines what happens in civil procedure, civil, lawsuit, criminal procedure, criminal or admini ...
or the law of
evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports the proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the proposition is truth, true. The exact definition and role of evidence vary across different fields. In epistemology, evidence is what J ...
, somewhat comparable to a
solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...
training in certain common-law countries. However, notaries only deal with non-contentious matters, as opposed to solicitors who may deal with both contentious and non-contentious matters. Civil-law notaries are limited to areas of private law, that is, domestic law which regulates the relationships between individuals and in which the State is not directly concerned. The most common areas of practice for civil-law notaries are in residential and commercial conveyancing and registration, contract drafting, company formation, successions and
estate planning Estate planning is the process of anticipating and arranging for the management and disposal of a person's Estate (law), estate during the person's life in preparation for future incapacity or death. The planning includes the bequest of assets to ...
, and powers of attorney. Ordinarily, they have no authority to appear in court on their client's behalf; their role is limited to drafting, authenticating, and registering certain types of transactional or legal instruments. In some countries, such as the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
,
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, or Québec (Canada) among others, they also retain and keep a
minute A minute is a unit of time defined as equal to 60 seconds. It is not a unit in the International System of Units (SI), but is accepted for use with SI. The SI symbol for minutes is min (without a dot). The prime symbol is also sometimes used i ...
copy of their instruments—in the form of
memoranda A memorandum (: memorandums or memoranda; from the Latin ''memorandum'', "(that) which is to be remembered"), also known as a briefing note, is a Writing, written message that is typically used in a professional setting. Commonly abbreviation, ...
—in notarial protocols, or archives. Notaries generally hold undergraduate degrees in civil law and graduate degrees in notarial law. Notarial law involves expertise in a broad spectrum of private law including
family law Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations. Overview Subjects that commonly fall under a nation's body of family law include: * Marriag ...
, estate and testamentary law, conveyancing and
property law Property law is the area of law that governs the various forms of ownership in real property (land) and personal property. Property refers to legally protected claims to resources, such as land and personal property, including intellectual prope ...
, the law of agency, and contract and company law. Student notaries must complete a long apprenticeship or articled clerkship as a trainee notary and usually spend some years as a junior associate in a notarial firm before working as a partner or opening a private practice. Any such practice is usually tightly regulated, and most countries parcel out areas into notarial districts with a set number of notary positions. This has the effect of making notarial appointments very limited.


Notarial instruments

As a lawyer, a civil-law notary draws up and executes
legal instrument Legal instrument is a law, legal term of art that is used for any formally executed written document that can be formally attributed to its author, records and formally expresses a legally enforceable act, process, or contractual duty, obligation ...
s called notarial instruments (Fr ''acte notarié'', Sp ''instrumento notarial'', It ''atto notarile'', Du ''notariële akte'', Ger ''notarielle Urkunde'', ''Notariatsurkunde''). To be valid, a notarial instrument must be signed contemporaneously (''uno contextu'') by the (parties to the instrument), sometimes in the presence of attesting witnesses, before the notary who also signs and officiates the signing ceremony.


Status at law

Notarial instruments, if ''prima facie'' duly executed, are: * presumed valid and regular; * self-authenticating; * probative (i.e., proof of their contents); * public; * self-executing; and * have a ''data certa'', i.e., a fixed, unalterable effective date. Traditionally, notarial instruments trigger a entailing two consequences—regularity and probativity. First, being an official act, a
presumption of regularity The presumption of regularity is a presumption that forms part of the law of evidence of England and Wales. It is expressed by the maxim of law ''omnia praesumuntur rite et solemniter esse acta donec probetur in contrarium'', (); which may be shor ...
attaches to the instrument, meaning all prescribed formalities have been carried out, including the reading over of the instrument. Second, a notarial instrument is self-authenticating and probative, i.e., it constitutes full proof of the agreement it contains, as against the parties, their heirs, and successors. It also means the notary's firsthand (''de visu et auditu suis sensibus'') narrations of fact are conclusively presumed true and correct, whereas secondhand narrations (appearers' representations) are merely ''assertio notarii'' which are rebuttably presumed valid. While all notarial instruments are official documents, they are not all necessarily public; most instruments are in public form, meaning an original is retained ''in publica custodia'' by the notary in his or her protocol or recorded with a public registry, but some are in private form, that is, a single original is issued directly to the . In either case, the appearer always walks away with an instrument that is self-executing, that is, it requires no further implementing action to be effective and enforceable, just like a court order. Finally, notarial instruments have a fixed effective or signature date (''data certa'') that cannot be ante- or postdated, or left blank and filled in after signing.


Secondary effects

Notarial instruments cannot be altered or overridden by prior or subsequent instruments under hand (e.g., simple contracts). In other words, for example, a notarial will could not be amended or superseded by a non-notarial codicil or will. They also estop (preclude) an appearer as contract denier from raising most
affirmative defenses An affirmative defense to a civil lawsuit or criminal charge is a fact or set of facts other than those alleged by the plaintiff or prosecutor which, if proven by the defendant, defeats or mitigates the legal consequences of the defendant's ...
as to enforceability, including: (1) ''
non est factum (Latin for " tis not ydeed") is a defence in contract law that allows a signing party to escape performance of an agreement "which is fundamentally different from what he or she intended to execute or sign". A claim of means that the signature ...
'', (2) the contents do not correctly express the appearers' intentions, and (3) defenses against formation (e.g., ''ultra vires'', lack of capacity, improper execution, etc.). One thing that distinguishes a civil-law notary's instruments from those of a common lawyer is the fact that, under
common law legal systems Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...
, drafts and non-identical copies are considered separate documents, while under civil law public documents may be proved by secondary evidence. An unexecuted minute is deemed firsthand proof of an instrument and considered the original, whereas the engrossment is not. The minute is, therefore, the ''authenticum'', or original instrument of writing, as distinguished from the self-executing copy, or ''instrumentum''.


Rebuttal

A notarial instrument's “valid” portions are open to direct rebuttal, but the “conclusive” portions can, in some jurisdictions, only be rebutted by an action of improbation (Fr ''inscription de faux'', It ''querela di falso'', Germ ''Fälschungsklage'') in which a challenger must bring a collateral attack against the instrument, proving a willful material error by strong, clear, and positively convincing proof, rather than the ordinary preponderance of evidence standard in civil actions. Legally, a successful challenge must overcome the ''praesumptio iustae causa'' which attaches to a notarial instrument, the result of which is that said instrument is presumed to have been made or formed with a ''iusta causa'', that is, sufficient legal consideration (''causa''). This presumption stems from the fact that a notary is expected to verify the facts, assertions, or events mentioned in his act, thereby assuming liability for and giving warrant to its contents. A successfully improbated instrument is null and set aside.


Forms

Nowadays, a public-form instrument is prepared first as an unexecuted original called a minute (Fr , It , Sp , Du , Ger ). The minute is archived in the draftsman notary's protocol (Fr ''protocole'', It ''protocollo'', Sp ''protocolo'', Ger ''Urkundenrolle''). The instrument's particulars—appearer, fees, subject matter, witnesses, date, and so forth—are noted or minuted in a register or logbook. From the minute the notary extends a fully engrossed execution copy, known as an engrossment (Fr/Du ''grosse'', It ''rogito'', Sp ''testimonio'', ''copia autorizada'', Ger ''Ausfertigung''), which is self-executing since it contains not only the material terms but also solemn and statutory notarial wording and, in some jurisdictions, enacting clauses like those found on court orders. It is also the only copy that has fresh signatures and seals on it. The engrossed copy is issued directly to the . However, appearers are generally only entitled to one engrossment, so any other copy issued thereafter is a notarial
exemplified copy An exemplified copy (or exemplification) is an official attested copy or transcript of a public instrument, made under the seal and original pen-in-hand signature of a court or public functionary and in the name of the sovereign, for example, "Th ...
which does not contain the appearers' fresh signatures and lacks the formalities of the engrossment; exemplified copies (Fr , It , Sp , , Du , , Ger ) are therefore only for reference purposes. Certain types of instruments are passed ''in private form'', that is, only one copy—the original—is made and issued to the appearer while the draftsman notary does not retain a copy. Private-form instruments are usually unilateral, have short-term legal effect, and do not benefit third parties, such as certificates of good standing, powers of attorney, certificates of dishonor, statutory declarations, verifications of fact, rent and pay receipts, and pension and annuity arrears documents. Additionally, some jurisdictions, especially those influenced by the Austrian Civil Code, divide notarial instruments into three types: * operative (Aust ''Notariatsakt'', Du , Sp ): memorializes and effects irrevocable legal business; includes all transactional and governing instruments; * declaratory (Aust ''Notariatsprotokoll'', Du , Sp ): records or notifies legal actions, facts, or rights; includes statutory declarations, company minutes, and registry memorials; * certificatory (Germ , Du , Sp ): attests personal status details; includes life certificates, certificates of good standing, copy certifications, signature attestations.


France

A French civil-law notary, or , is a highly specialized lawyer in private practice appointed as a public officer by the
justice minister A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
. The profession began admitting women in 1948, and by the start of 2008 women numbered 2,104 and accounted for 24.2% of all notaries."Notaire", ''Juriforum'', from ''Le droit et ses métiers 2009'', tml retrieved 25 August 2009: available a

/ref> A notarial office () usually includes ancillary staff like notaries' clerks () of different kinds, e.g., junior (), specialist (), and supervisory clerks (). Each level is divided into at least three pay grades, as well as legal secretaries, trainee notaries (), and accountants. In smaller offices, succession clerks are kept separate since their work differs significantly from other practice areas; in larger firms, clerks are separated into divisions by specialization. While most clerks are caseworkers, some work as costing specialists or formalities clerks. Secretaries oftentimes go on to pursue clerking.


Education

Notaries and notaries' clerks—a form of
paralegal A paralegal, also known as a legal assistant or paralegal specialist, is a legal professional who performs tasks that require knowledge of legal concepts but not the full expertise of a lawyer with an admission to practice law. The market for p ...
—earn undergraduate law degrees () from an accredited notarial law school (). Managing clerks () must obtain a special graduate clerking degree (). Law graduates must then earn a 1-year master's degree in law (MCL) () and either continue in a university law school or enroll at a notary institute () to earn a second graduate degree in notarial law for which specializations exist, including: conflict of laws, advanced tax law, overseas territories, EU law, struggling businesses, company law, intellectual property, farm tenancy and agri-business, city planning and
environmental law Environmental laws are laws that protect the environment. The term "environmental law" encompasses treaties, statutes, regulations, conventions, and policies designed to protect the natural environment and manage the impact of human activitie ...
, and estate planning. There are 2 postgraduate options: a university track () and a vocational track (). * University track: 1 year of university coursework for a Master's in notarial law (), followed by a 2-year, in-office traineeship (), supplemented with 4 semester-long practice courses and capped by a Master's thesis. At the end the graduate receives a . * Vocational track: begins with a competitive entrance exam in applied legal studies and is followed by 1 year of institute coursework for a Postgraduate Diploma in Notarial Practice (). Students must also complete a 2-year traineeship supplemented with 6 week-long practice seminars. Formerly, there was a non-degree option involving a lengthy apprenticeship. In addition, notaries' clerks with a minimum of 9 years of in-office experience, with 6 of those spent as a junior clerk, as well as judges and attorneys/solicitors of 6 years standing, may become a notary by passing a professional exam. Notaries are also required to attend regular continuing education courses and seminars.


Practice

In France, notarial instruments, whether in public () or private form (), have a high degree of authority and are considered probative instruments (), received as firsthand and primary evidence in court, and thereby accorded high evidentiary value and executory force, and deemed to be proof of their contents. A notarial instrument also fixes the date at which its parties are bound without prior delivery and acceptance (as opposed to a
deed A deed is a legal document that is signed and delivered, especially concerning the ownership of property or legal rights. Specifically, in common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right ...
or
contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...
under common law) and the () of the act's execution so as to safeguard against third party claims. To be rebutted or challenged, a notarial act must be subjected to a rescissory action called an improbation action () to prove the act contains errors or has been maliciously altered, interlineated, edited, or falsified. Notaries engage in a wide variety of legal activities ranging from contract drafting and legal advising—primarily in company, family, and property law. Roughly 50% of French notarial business involves real estate conveyancing, leasing, and construction. Domestic affairs, e.g., adoptions, marital agreements, divorces, and the like, as well as estate planning account for another 26%. Preparing notarial acts for private parties, informing parties as to the scope of their contractual obligations, ensuring that the instrument or contract is fair and unbiased, and acting as a non-contentious and impartial advocate for the business transaction as a whole, notaries prevent and resolve many potential conflicts beforehand. Notaries have a monopoly on marital agreements, marital property systems, estate administration, and conveyancing (realty sales, mortgages, etc.). They are also experts in the law of property with exclusive access to France's M.I.N. database which contains all property transfer and conveyance information. This gives notaries a singular advantage in gauging the property market, thus allowing them to appraise property, conduct transactions, and handle taxes and financing. In France, when a notarial act is passed before one notary subscribing, it is said to be , or in simple form, and when before two notaries with the second attesting, then it is , or in solemn form. Acts may be drawn up in public or private form, said and respectively. When drawn in private form, the single executed original is issued to the client, and its particulars are logged in the notary's register. When in public form, one un-executed minute copy () is retained of record in the notary's protocol, thereby constituting a public instrument, and a fully engrossed execution copy (called a and now termed ) is issued to the client and is headed and footed with the same or "enactment clause" used on court orders and writs. Minutes and engrossments are only drawn up once, and, should a past client lose their copy or need further copies, by law, said person may only receive exemplifications (, now termed ) of the act. Notaries also issue detailed or summary abstracts of acts () and make notarial certified copies () of documents not in their custody.


Professional organizations

All French notaries are jointly and severally liable for professional errors in the performance of their duties. When liable, damages are paid from a nationwide consolidated indemnity fund. Group liability of this kind is otherwise unprecedented. Notaries are therefore required to take out professional indemnity insurance for the due protection of their clients. French notaries are part of and regulated by a local or county notaries society, or , on whose advice notaries are appointed and who conduct annual accounting audits of notarial offices, establish and regulate professional and ethical standards, and can censure or temporarily suspend notaries. Notaries are also members of a regional notaries council () which acts very much like a common-law college of notaries by providing continuing education and other support services to notaries; they also take disciplinary action against notary misconduct including dismissal, removal from office, and revoking a notary's license to practice. The regional councils are governed and headed by the National Council of Notaries () which conducts surprise inspections, provides research, outlook, and public relations services, and acts as the profession's administrative head.


Germany

Notar office Notar by Max Volkhart In Germany, the main function of a ''Notar'' (pl. ''Notare'', fem. ''Notarin'') is to draw up, execute, and retain
legal instrument Legal instrument is a law, legal term of art that is used for any formally executed written document that can be formally attributed to its author, records and formally expresses a legally enforceable act, process, or contractual duty, obligation ...
s transacting or governing noncontentious matters in reserved areas of law: *
real property In English common law, real property, real estate, immovable property or, solely in the US and Canada, realty, refers to parcels of land and any associated structures which are the property of a person. For a structure (also called an Land i ...
(
conveyancing In law, conveyancing is the transfer of legal title of real property from one person to another, or the granting of an encumbrance such as a mortgage or a lien. A typical conveyancing transaction has two major phases: the exchange of contract ...
, servitudes, real securities) * successions (wills and ,
estate planning Estate planning is the process of anticipating and arranging for the management and disposal of a person's Estate (law), estate during the person's life in preparation for future incapacity or death. The planning includes the bequest of assets to ...
,
executor An executor is someone who is responsible for executing, or following through on, an assigned task or duty. The feminine form, executrix, is sometimes used. Executor of will An executor is a legal term referring to a person named by the maker o ...
ships) * family law (marital agreements, healthcare proxies, alimony & child support agreements) * company law (formation, restructuring, registration, corporate minutes) Prospective notaries must have the same basic legal education as attorneys: first, they must be law graduates who have passed the first legal practice exam (''erste juristische Staatsprüfung''); then, they must article as a judicial clerk for 2 years and pass the second legal practice exam (''zweite juristische Staatsprüfung''). In addition, dual-practice notaries (''Anwaltsnotar'') must have 5 years standing as a practicing attorney/solicitor and pass a competitive notarial practice exam (''notarielle Fachprüfung'') before being admitted as notaries. Single-practice notaries (''Nur-Notar''), on the other hand, must article for 3 years as a trainee notary (''Notarassessor''). German notaries are appointed by authority of their state justice minister, draft notarial instruments (''notarielle Urkunde'') and retain them of record in their protocol (''Urkundenrolle''), and provide independent and impartial advice to all interested parties (''Beteiligte''). A notary's instruments are valid nationwide. The mode of practice depends on the state, but in all, 1,700 German notaries practice exclusively as a notary versus 4,800 practicing dually as an attorney-notary. Notaries maintain independent private practices. Single-practice notaries practice as a notary sole (''Einzelnotar'') or in a 2-person partnership (''Zweier-Sozietät''), whereas attorney-notaries structure themselves into law firms of varying size. German notaries prepare instruments according to federal statutory guidelines and advise appearers on their legal obligations and consequences. A notary's statutory duties are: * to satisfy himself of the identity of the appearers (''Erschienenen'' or ''Urkundsparteien''); * to verify the parties to contracts are competent to enter into them; * ''Belehrungspflicht'': to rigorously explain to appearers the contents and legal implications of the instrument; and * to have the appearers sign before and with the notary and sometimes in the presence of witnesses. The notary affixes his official seal (''Dienstsiegel'') to the instrument and binds it with thin cords (''Verbindung'', ''Heftung''). If the instrument is ''prima facie'' duly executed, courts will enforce it, presume it valid and regular, and admit it as evidence to prove the truth of its contents. In Germany, notaries are very important in day-to-day business. For example, any real estate sales contract (§ 311(b),
German Civil Code German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
),
articles of association In corporate governance, a company's articles of association (AoA, called articles of incorporation in some jurisdictions) is a document that, along with the memorandum of association (where applicable), forms the company's constitution. The ...
, alimony or child support agreement, or contract concerning succession () must be in notarial form. Likewise, any share purchase or asset transfer agreement of a
private limited company A private limited company is any type of business entity in Privately held company, "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a Public company, publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Example ...
(''
GmbH (; ) is a type of Juridical person, legal entity in German-speaking countries. It is equivalent to a (Sàrl) in the Romandy, French-speaking region of Switzerland and to a (Sagl) in the Ticino, Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. It is a ...
'') must be notarially executed pursuant to s. 15(3) of the ''Private Limited Companies Act (GmbHG)''. Contracts requiring notarial execution can be drafted by the executing notary, the parties, or by an attorney/solicitor.


Indonesia

Every
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
n notary (, a professional directly copied from Dutch practice, is a member of the Indonesian Society of Notaries (, INI) and are very similar to his or her Dutch counterpart. However,
agrarian reform Land reform (also known as agrarian reform) involves the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership, land use, and land transfers. The reforms may be initiated by governments, by interested groups, or by revolution. Lan ...
s starting with the passing of the 1960 Land Act (itself replacing the Dutch East Indian ''Agrarische Wet'' of 1870, commonly referred to the act that started the Dutch East Indian liberal period) ''
de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' (; ; ) describes practices that are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. The phrase is often used in contrast with '' de facto'' ('from fa ...
'' removed real estate transactions from the notary's practice areas. All real estate transactions are now ''de jure'' executed by conveyancers (, , abbreviated as PPAT) appointed by the (in comparison, civil law notaries are appointed by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights), however most notaries often have dual-status as conveyancers.


Italy

Notaries in Italy are professionals working in private-practice and paid on a fee-for-service basis, or, should they not earn enough money, by the national Notarial Trust (), a public body funded by the notaries themselves, which also manages their pensions upon retirement. In order to be admitted as a notary in Italy a candidate must pass a public exam open to all Italian citizens who: * possess full citizenship rights and have not been convicted of any crimes; * have successfully completed a university degree in law (); * have successfully completed an 18-month traineeship (articling) under a qualified notary (a notary who has served as such for more than 5 years); * are less than 50 years of age; * did not fail 5 previous attempts at the notary exam. The public exam is composed of two parts, a written and an oral portion. The written portion consists of drafting three full notarial instruments (), justifying the choices made in those instruments (), and a theoretical part about the topics covered in the exam (). The three tests are about the three most important areas of expertise of a notary: law of succession (), contract law () and company law (). Candidates achieving a sufficient score on the written test are admitted to the oral exam during which other subjects such as tax law are evaluated. A national score report is published afterwards, and notaries admitted to practice are appointed to a certain practice area (city, rural area) based on their choices and their performance on the exam. After receiving their seal of office, which is the symbol of the profession and legitimizes the instruments they sign, a notary has to complete a final 6 months of training under a qualified notary. Given the difficulty of the national exam, almost all candidates attend notary training institutes. Those schools are fully private institutions and are by no means mandatory, but virtually all successful candidates have at some point attended one or more. An average person requires about 12 years (5 years of university, 18 months in a traineeship, an average of 5 years to pass the national exam and 6 further months of training) of continuous studies in order to become a notary. As such, notaries are among the most highly trained professionals in Italy and are held in high regard both professionally and socially. After the training is done a notary usually opens a law office () in the practice area designated by the State. After one year they are allowed to open a second office in the same area. The law mandates a minimum of three half days to be allocated at the primary office but makes no references to a minimum or maximum fee that can be applied. Given the relatively small number of notaries (about 5,000) and the high volume of work they are required to do, notaries are usually very expensive professionals, and consistently rank first among the best paid professional category in Italy. Notaries are required by law whenever real estate () is donated, whenever a company changes its bylaws, or whenever relevant property (such as automobiles) is donated. Notarial instruments are legally binding, publicly available, and accorded full faith and credit for any claim until improbated (). The conclusive presumption of validity and regularity and public availability are the two main aspects of the notarial instrument as opposed to legal instruments drafted by attorneys or instruments drafted and signed by non-lawyers.


Netherlands

Every Dutch civil law notary () is part of the Royal Society of Notaries ( (KNB, , formerly the Royal Fraternity of Notaries () until 1 October 1997) and occupy a special position relative to other legal practitioners such as attorneys, court bailiffs, and tax advisors. This is apparent first and foremost from the fact that notaries are public officers appointed for life by the Crown and provide regulated legal services. As a qualified lawyer, a notary takes on clients, is paid on a fee-for-service basis. Life appointment is designed to safeguard the independence needed by notaries to discharge their functions. Notaries are independent and disinterested. Unlike attorneys or legal advisors, a notary does not represent or act in the interest of any one party. Instead, under the Dutch legal system, notaries are required to act impartially on behalf of all parties to a contract or transaction. For example, when real property is conveyed, notaries act for both the seller and buyer, also as an
escrow An escrow is a contractual arrangement in which a third party (the stakeholder or escrow agent) receives and disburses money or property for the primary transacting parties, with the disbursement dependent on conditions agreed to by the transact ...
agent. They are subject to legal professional privilege and are therefore duty-bound not to betray client confidentiality, thereby giving them the right to withhold information in court as would an attorney or doctor. In cases where a notary acts as legal advisor to a particular interested party, the advising notary must counsel all parties including third-party beneficiaries. All notaries are law graduates. Not only are they experts in family, estate, company, and property laws, but they must also stay up-to-date about pertinent cases and certain aspects of tax legislation. If necessary, a Dutch notary will instruct and call on the services of other legal practitioners. However, under no circumstances may a notary represent clients in court. Apart from advising, a notary also draws, executes, and retains instruments either by statute or at the parties' request. Under Dutch law, a notarially executed instrument is probative as of the ''data certa'' (''vaste datum'') and subscription of the parties. Notaries archive the minute (protocol copy, Dutch ''minuut'') and issue exemplifications (''authentiek afschrift'') to the parties. The only fully executed copy, known as the engrossment (''grosse''), is ''prima facie'' demonstrative evidence of its contents, similar to a court order. There is, therefore, no need for the party to or custodian of a notarial instrument to provide extraneous evidence to verify the instrument's probativity. And under Dutch law, for instruments to be self-executing they must be drawn up as public instruments, which is why any instrument drafted by a common-law lawyer, which is never public, is not self-executing in the Netherlands. The new ''Notaries Act'' (''Wet op het Notarisambt''), commenced in October 1999 (156 years after the original act), reinforces the official position of notaries, but also expands on and adds to their traditional services. The consolidation of the notary's official position is, for example, reflected in the way the requirements of impartiality and independence have been enshrined in law, the many regulations a notary and notary's clerk are required to adhere to, and the fact that a notary is prohibited from acting as an attorney. Market forces have widened the possibility for notary's clerks to become notaries and for competition. However, the 1999 Act did not make substantial changes to the profession. While Dutch notaries are public officers and their instruments are public instruments, they are not government employees and instead act as independent private practitioners. The new law makes it easier for notaries’ clerks to set up a practice and gives notaries more freedom in determining their fees for services. The Act has provided for the establishment of an external committee of experts; if notary's clerks submit a sound business plan to the committee, they have a greater chance to be approved to set up their own practice. Greater freedom in the fees a notary can charge implies that the Royal Society of Notaries no longer fixes fees or prescribes rates. Since July 2003 notaries have been free to establish their own fees. Maximum rate caps fixed by authorities now apply only to family law services in certain circumstances.


Quebec (Canada)

A
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
notary, or ''notaire'', is a highly specialized lawyer in private practice appointed as a public officer that takes part in the administration of justice. A notary is also a legal adviser. The mission of notaries, in their capacity as a public officer, is to execute acts which the parties wish or are required to endow with the authenticity attaching to acts of public authority, to provide such acts with a fixed date, and to keep all acts executed ''en minute'' in their notarial records and issue copies of or extracts from them. In their role as a public officer, notaries are duty-bound to act impartially and to advise all parties to an act which the parties wish or are required to endow with authenticity. Notaries have a monopoly on marital property systems, estate administration, and conveyancing (realty sales, mortgages, etc.) and give legal advices regarding noncontentious matters. ''Studies'' * Notaries earn undergraduate law degrees (''Baccalauréat en droit (LL.B.)'' or ''Licence en droit (LL.L.'')) from an accredited Canadian Civil Law school. * Law graduates must then earn a master's degree in notarial law ( LL.M.) (''Maîtrise en droit notarial'') which specialized in contract laws, advanced tax law, business law, conflict of laws, real estate law, city planning and environmental law, dispute prevention and resolution, and estate planning. To graduate, students must complete 54 postgraduate credits, which include an 80-day internship and practice seminars. * LL.M. graduates must then enroll at the notary institute (''Chambre des notaires du Québec)'' and pass professional exams. Notaries are also required to attend regular continuing education courses and seminars.


Spain

In
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
, a ''notario'' is both a
civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
and a private and highly specialised lawyer. Thus, although they hold a private practice, depending on the role they professionally exercise they may be acting as public officers (for instance, when working with governmental agencies and departments, or when certifying notarial instruments in a court of law) or as private practitioners (for instance, when paying their own staff's taxes and salaries, or assuming the running costs of their own notarial practice). Spanish notaries are charged with writing and authorising notarial instruments that gather either perceptible facts from which some legal right might be derived (for instance, holding witness, or validating a document), or juridical business of any sort both in private and commercial law that in one way or another require collecting the will of all parties involved, as would be for instance mortgage contracts or powers of attorney (''poder notarial''). Notaries are regulated by the ''Ley de 28 de mayo de 1862 del Notariado de España'' (Spanish Notaries Act 1862). Access to the profession is restricted to Spanish and EU citizens over the age of 23, and who hold a law graduate degrees (or, rarely, a doctorate in law). In order to become a notary, the candidate has to sit a highly competitive public examination consisting of 4 parts covering all legal and practical aspects of Spanish private law. This ''oposición pública'' is usually called once a year to cover arising vacancies in the notarial jurisdictions. Because very few openings take place, the success rate for this exam is extremely low (under 1% earn a position), and preparing for the examination typically takes potential candidates 2 to 5 years. Spanish notaries exercise their notarial instruments (known in general as ''fe pública notarial'') in a dual manner: # When discussing matters of fact, what a Spanish notary sees, hears, or perceives is held to have full evidentiary value and executory force, and is, therefore, proof of the fact. # When discussing matters of the Law, notarial instruments hold the authenticity and probative force of the wills declared by the parties appearing in it. As private practitioners, Spanish notaries are also obliged by law to offer legal counsel to all those that may require or demand it, and advise them on the most appropriate legal means they may need to reach their goals, so long as the latter are licit. Unlike in common law jurisdictions, Spanish notaries are actively involved in drafting the notarial instruments and contracts, usually (if so needed) as advised by the signing parties. In that manner, they act as private practitioners. However, inasmuch as public officers, notaries are obliged to ensure that the notarial instruments and contracts are law abiding, and upon notarising the instrument (''calificación notarial''), the instrument has the full power of the law. Because of this, the validity and truthfulness of notarial instruments are a priori held to be true, and therefore had probative value in the Courts, were disputes to arise. The three main notarial instruments a Spanish notary holds are: # ''Escrituras públicas'' (public-form instruments), which refer to all contracts and declarations that involve the assent of two or more parties. This includes house deeds, # ''Actas notariales'' (private-form instruments). These are notarial statements, whereby the notary bears witness to something he or she has physically been part of. They may be employed by lawyers requiring an independent third party (the notary) to witness something (the presence of some individual somewhere, or the drawing of a specific prize by lot, the validity of a translation...). # ''Pólizas intervenidas'' (intervened policies). These are typically commercial contracts such as mortgage and insurance policies, where one of the parties grants some right (say, a loan) to another. Finally, Spanish notaries offer engrossments and certifications, e.g. copy certifications. Notaries execute and stamp ‘dar fe’ (giving faith) on each page of the notarial instrument, which are bound together with their archival number and page, and held in a protocol (''practice''). The notarial instrument is always written on certified paper (''papel timbrado''), special paper issued and numbered by the Royal Mint, and bound alongside all other notarial instruments yearly to be archived by the notary's protocol. The minute copy (''matriz'') must be physically held by the notary. The notary may issue exemplified copies of the minute having the same validity as the latter. Notarial practices are limited by law to a specific practice location where the notary typically has his or her law office (''notaría''). Each notary's office is held by a notary sole, and tends to employ a number of clerks (''pasantes'') and administrators. These offices are private practices, and are self-funded with the fees that the notary is allowed to charge. Notaries' fees are regulated by law. Each notarial instrument has a moderate cost on its own, added to which the notary charges per page drafted, per copy emitted, etc., a legally set amount. The notary is also obliged to collect whichever taxes may be involved in the transactions they notarise (for instance, the
stamp duty Stamp duty is a tax that is levied on single property purchases or documents (including, historically, the majority of legal documents such as cheques, receipts, military commissions, marriage licences and land transactions). Historically, a ...
or VAT costs).


Latin America

Although regulated in a different manner in each country, notaries in the Spanish Americas operate in a very similar manner to Spanish notaries.


Other countries

As a general rule, countries who formerly were colonies or viceroyalties of Spain, France or Portugal, have retained a civil law tradition and, accordingly, a civil-law notarial profession. This is the case with most Latin American and French-speaking African countries, but not so of Asian countries.


The International Union of Notaries

Most of the countries which have civil-law notaries are members of the International Union of Notaries (UINL). Members include: ; Europe (35) : Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the United Kingdom (only the City of London), Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Macedonia, The Vatican, Turkey and Ukraine. ; Americas (24) : Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico (United States), Louisiana (United States), Quebec (Canada), Uruguay, and Venezuela. ; Africa (15) : Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Senegal and Togo. ; Asia (3) : Bangladesh, China (People's Republic), Indonesia, Japan. The members of the union are represented by their respective national councils or by similar national organisations and by notarial districts and regional or provincial societies of notaries. The UINL has preferential relations with professional legal officers who fulfil notarial duties in various countries (or federated states within a
federation A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...
) or with the bodies that represent them. The countries that have asked to join the union are: Georgia, Mauritius, Kazakhstan, Mauritania, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Serbia, the Seychelles, South Korea, Tunisia, and Vietnam. The federated states that have asked to join the union are: Alabama, British Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, and Texas.


History


Origins

Scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of Printing press, automatic printing. The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as ...
s have existed since recorded history, but the notary's authentication tools were first invented in the
Fertile Crescent The Fertile Crescent () is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning modern-day Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, together with northern Kuwait, south-eastern Turkey, and western Iran. Some authors also include ...
where in
Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...
the use of signatures and distinct signs in clay tablets was required.
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
innovated the use of
papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can a ...
and the calame, added legalistic formalism to document preparation, and had specialized notary-scribes, called ''sesh n pero "pharaoh's scribe" or ''sesh n po'' "scribe of the nome"—''agoranomos'' in Ptolemaic times—who gave authenticity to instruments without the need for witnesses. In Ancient Israel there existed a similar institution of the notary-scribe known as the ''sofér''.
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
city-states lacked uniformity, but, universally, public instruments, usually
deed A deed is a legal document that is signed and delivered, especially concerning the ownership of property or legal rights. Specifically, in common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right ...
s and conveyances, were kept in official registers and drafted by scribal (or "king's scribes") who were tied to a certain district and whose written acts trumped oral testimony. These innovations would be combined and adopted under the
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...
.


Roman Empire

In Rome, scribes ('' scribae'') acted as court recorders and copyists of instruments, whereas the ''notarius'' took dictation and raw minutes or memoranda (''notae'') of proceedings in shorthand. Different kinds of ''notarius'' existed: some recorded proceedings, others transcribed state papers, some supplied magistrates with legal forms, and others registered judgements and decrees. A number were involved with the noncontentious jurisdiction of the courts by drawing up deeds, wills, and conveyances which could then be sealed before the presiding magistrate and affixed with the official seal of the court, thereby rendering them public and probative acts. Otherwise, most instruments were in private form. One type of ''notarius'' was the ''exceptor'' who emerged as the official clerk attached to all bureaus and courts and required at all municipal meetings of ''curiae''.Joseph P. Byrne, “Notaries”, in ''Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia'', vol. 2: ''L–Z'', ed. Christopher Kleinhenz (London: Routledge, 2003), 780. Yet, drawing up private documents was more the preserve of the ''tabellio'', a professional scrivener who held no public office. The ''tabellio'' used clerks to take shorthand notes and wrote them out in minute form. This was then engrossed into an extended act, duly attested by witnesses and endorsed with a ''completio'', or
eschatocol An eschatocol, or closing protocol, is the final section of a legal or public document, which may include a formulaic sentence of appreciation; the attestation of those responsible for the document, which may be the author, writer, countersigner, ...
(docquet). Early on and like the ''notarius'', a ''tabellios instrument lacked probativity. Only by attaching copies of the judicial proceedings wherein one party petitions the second party to either contest or accept the act in open court could the instrument be made probative, i.e., imbued with ''fides publica'', "public faith and credit". In later years, it became possible to register and deposit the acts of a ''tabellio'' in public archives to make them probative. Both ''exceptores'' and ''tabelliones'' were organized into civil guilds (''collegia, scholae'') to ensure the official recording of both public and private acts. Though ''tabelliones'' were of lower social status, the position had high mobility, and official posts often drew young nobles. By the Late Roman period, ''notarius'' came to denote registrars attached to the courts of provincial governors, secretaries of emperors, and the highest class of officials in the privy council and the imperial chancery. In the Church, they were administrative secretaries for bishops and monasteries and were important as correspondents in the doctrinal battles of the 3rd and 4th centuries. Constantine himself created guilds of ''notarii'' for bishops and their courts. ''Tabelliones'' were nicknamed "runners" ''(cursores)'' because of their quick drafting speed and their "cursive" minute hand. They were also sometimes known as ''forenses'' and ''publici''—from their presence in public places—before being subsumed under the functions of the , or notary-clerk. Lawyers—or or —also often acted as scriveners.


Early Middle Ages

With the degeneration of public administration and its assumption by the Church in the West, as well as the replacement of Roman legal writing culture with a Germanic oral legal system based on witness testimony and open court proceedings, secular scribes and scriveners became obsolete. In a select group of urban areas, such as in northern Italy and southern France, Roman law tended to be preserved, at least for civil matters, and there the secular ''notarius'' or ''tabellio'' lived on mostly as a scrivener. Ecclesiastical notaries () in the main perfected a number of common notarial devices, namely the use of ribbons, seals, manual signs (''signum''), and the form of the eschatocol during this time. They also came to be called ''scrinarius''. Pope Gregory the Great (r. 590–604) organized papal ''notarii'' or ''scrinarii'' into a ''schola''; Gregory's registers show that they were responsible for recording correspondence, ordinations, privileges, donations, synodal acts, and matters related to the
Patrimony of Saint Peter The Patrimony of Saint Peter () originally designated the landed possessions and revenues of various kinds that belonged to the apostolic Holy See. Until the middle of the 8th century this consisted wholly of private property; later, it correspon ...
, as well as serving as papal advisors, diplomats, and envoys. Similarly, the papal chancery, archive, and library were organized around their efforts. In northern Italy during the Ostrogothic and Lombard periods, the offices of ''exceptor'' and ''tabellio'' were carried out by scriptores and notaries. The ''notarius civitatis'', or ‘urban notary’, served Lombard kings and nobles in their courts; continued to aid bishops, abbots, and some of the public. These two kinds of notaries attended the same episcopal schools, and the existence of ecclesiastical notaries led to the demand for secular ones. Unorganized and unregulated ''publici notarii'', or ‘lay notaries’, handled private matters, since the Lombards did not practice ''insinuation''. From the late 7th century on, important notaries’ societies (and probably notarial education) existed in Pavia, Cremona, Milan, Lucca, Rome, and Ravenna. In
Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...
France, ecclesiastical notaries, continuing Late Imperial practice, were attached to county courts as clerks of court who recorded proceedings and prepared and engrossed instruments and process which were later sealed before the count with the court's official seal to render them public and authentic. Otherwise, it was not until the 9th century, when
Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...
, in an effort to reform the county court system, began to appoint notaries to accompany itinerant royal commissioners during their assize circuit, which notaries were called royal notaries. By the 10th century, they had become permanent clerks of court and came to greatly outnumber and then absorb the comital notaries into their corps. This system was preserved by the
Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
. Charlemagne also raised ecclesiastical notaries to the status of deacon or priest. As a result, the Office of notary became a stepping-stone to higher church office. They continued to serve the public as well before being made obsolete by the full emergence of a lay notarial profession in the 12th century. Charlemagne ordered that every bishop, abbot, and count employ a notary, appointed by himself if necessary. He therefore accepted and altered Lombard practice, formalized it, and spread it to the rest of the empire. His own notarial secretaries were the ''cancellarii''. One notary in particular,
Paul the Deacon Paul the Deacon ( 720s 13 April in 796, 797, 798, or 799 AD), also known as ''Paulus Diaconus'', ''Warnefridus'', ''Barnefridus'', or ''Winfridus'', and sometimes suffixed ''Cassinensis'' (''i.e.'' "of Monte Cassino"), was a Benedictine monk, sc ...
, played a pivotal role in the Carolingian Renaissance. Paul was trained at Pavia, was chancellor to the Lombard king Desierius, taught at the Frankish palace school (782–787), and may have been responsible for reforming the notarial system. The famous '' missi dominici'' oversaw the work of comital (counts') and episcopal notaries, who, under
Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (; ; ; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781. As the only ...
, were drawn specifically from the noble class. Under
Lothair I Lothair I (9th. C. Frankish: ''Ludher'' and Medieval Latin: ''Lodharius''; Dutch and Medieval Latin: ''Lotharius''; German: ''Lothar''; French: ''Lothaire''; Italian: ''Lotario''; 795 – 29 September 855) was a 9th-century emperor of the ...
, imperial law regulated notarial practice of both episcopal and comital ''cancellarii'' and private notaries and limited a notary's geographic jurisdiction.


Byzantine Europe

In the East, however, the tabularius, called ''symbolaiographos'' and the juris, the ''nomikos'', continued to thrive. To stem fraud,
Justinian Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...
reforms codified (cf. 44th and 77th novellae) new precautionary measures for giving a document probativity such as: * the actual presence of the attesting tabellio and the recording of other witnesses' names, * the obligatory presence and signatures of witnesses to an act's signing * dating by regnal and consular year and indiction * inclusion of an eschatocol in which the tabellio claimed responsibility for the document * recitation before a judge before recordation, a process known as ''insinuatio''. Some measures proved untenable and, with the short supply of administrators and half loss of the Empire (early 7th century), notaries became a primarily urban phenomenon with somewhat relaxed standards of practice. Still, they remained the highest-ranking lawyer and instrumental to the legal and court process as Germanic-type oral proceedings were unknown and Roman legalistic traditions survived intact. From the mid-6th century, a large body of centuries-old legal texts was given force of law and became widely circulated. Similarly, the importance of law court officials declined as did lawsuits in regular civil courts and this, in turn, allowed private settlements mediated by notaries at lower cost to flourish. In time, all notarial functions (clerical and law officer) were concentrated into the law-trained ''nomikos'', though the
Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...
would provide notarial services in town and rural settings. The Church also retained the old separation between ''symbolaiographos'', or notary-draftsman, ''notarios'', or notary-scribe, and the clerical ''nomikos'', or notary lawyer. By the 10th century, secular nomikoi had been organized into a regulatory guild, were attached to the State, appointed by the
Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...
, and ranked among the highest of legal officers. The introductory portions of their acts also tended to invoke God, and crosses and Christian insignia were often applied to the face of an act. Notarial practice would be slightly westernized under Venetian occupation, but remained substantially unchanged until the end of the
Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
.


Late Middle Ages

Imperial
Ravenna Ravenna ( ; , also ; ) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its Fall of Rome, collapse in 476, after which ...
retained separate scholae of imperial notaries, ecclesiastical notaries, and tabelliones. However, with the fall of the Exarchate, imperial notaries disappeared with unauthorized tabelliones absorbing most of their legal jurisdiction and function. During the 11th century and the early 12th century, attempts to bring the tabellionate under imperial purview were resisted and failed at Ravenna, though by the 13th century many professionals styled themselves ''notarius et tabellio'', combining both functions in their practice. By the 13th century, even the Ravennati adopted the title "notary by imperial authority," and the retrograde tabellionate slowly dissolved. The ecclesiastical notariate in Ravenna retained its position until the 12th century, but did not interfere in the sphere of the secular notariate. During the 12th century, the lay tabellionate absorbed most of the functions of the church notary, even running Ravenna's episcopal chancery by 1127. Elsewhere in Italy, where it had survived, the independent ecclesiastical notariate likewise slowly disappeared: in Lucca, the comital notariate replaced it during the Carolingian period; and in Bologna, home of the revived imperial legal tradition, the bishop's last clerical notary died in 1133. Even in Rome, lay notaries gained in importance, and in 1211 Pope Innocent III declared that no notary in a church court could hold major orders. In southern Italy, when Sicily fell to the Arabs it lost the notarial tradition, while other areas, such as
Apulia Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...
,
Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
, and
Lucania Lucania was a historical region of Southern Italy, corresponding to the modern-day region of Basilicata. It was the land of the Lucani, an Oscan people. It extended from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. It bordered with Samnium and ...
, held on to Greco-Byzantine practices. Areas retaining the Latin-Lombard traditions used the ''notarius'', but he may have been attached to and authorized through a palace, church, monastery, or even city; or sometimes he was itinerant and without official authority. During the 10th century,
Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
maintained a clear organization of notaries (''curiali'') in a ''collegio'' under a ''primarius'' aided by a ''tabularius''. Documents were often drawn up by ''discipuli'' ("apprentices"), but only the notary could apply the eschatocol.
Amalfi Amalfi (, , ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno. It lies at the mouth of a deep ravine, at the foot of Monte Cerreto (1,315 metres, 4,314 feet), surrounded by dramatic c ...
followed a looser organization: ''scribae civitatis'' ("scriveners") were called ''curiali'' by c. 1000, many may have worked only part-time, and there was no clear caste of ''discipuli''.
Gaeta Gaeta (; ; Southern Latian dialect, Southern Laziale: ''Gaieta'') is a seaside resort in the province of Latina in Lazio, Italy. Set on a promontory stretching towards the Gulf of Gaeta, it is from Rome and from Naples. The city has played ...
retained the ''scriba civitatis'', though mixing Greek with Latin traditions and clerical with secular functions and statuses. In the 10th and 11th centuries, titles included ''presbyter'' ("priest") ''et notarius civitatis'' and ''Leo greco-latinus presbyter et scriba civitatis'', though by the early 12th century a simple ''notarius civitatis'' would do. The southern Italian tradition was for the most part replaced by the Carolingian tradition when the region was conquered by the Normans. As northern Italy came to free itself in the late 11th century from imperial rule and episcopal authority, it established municipal authorities (known as ''consulates'') who, with the increase in literacy, came to rely heavily on the lay notary to produce, archive, and standardize public instruments under municipal seal. In addition, the Venetian pillaging of Byzantine libraries revived bookish learning and led to the founding of law schools, such as at the
University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...
which trained notaries-at-law. Similarly, as schools for notaries relied on Byzantine law and came to determine the development of the notarial corps, by the 10th century, the Carolingian and the Byzantine traditions were no longer distinguishable. The Italian notarial profession was transmitted from
Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...
to southern France through trade, first to
Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (, , ; ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately . History ...
, and eventually northward to
Bruges Bruges ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is in the northwest of the country, and is the sixth most populous city in the country. The area of the whole city amoun ...
(Flemish Belgium), and on to the eastern Mediterranean.


Distinction from American notaries public

Save for
Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...
,
Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...
, and
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
, a civil-law notary should not be confused with a
notary public A notary public ( notary or public notary; notaries public) of the common law is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with general financial transactions, estates, deeds, powers- ...
in the United States and Canada, who has none of the legal powers notaries enjoy at civil law. Rather, notaries public only have the power to administer oaths, take affidavits, declarations or depositions from witnesses, acknowledge and attest signatures, and certify copies, usually in conjunction with some legal process. The same does not apply to notaries public in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and many other Common Law countries. There the notary public is a lawyer and often holds a secondary legal qualification, such as solicitor or barrister. The aspiring Notary Public usually has to take additional exams or undertake post graduate study to become a notary public. In Louisiana, Puerto Rico, and Quebec, private law is traditionally based on the French and Spanish civil codes, giving notaries greater legal powers, including the right to prepare wills, conveyances and generally all contracts and instruments in writing. For this reason, immigrants from civil-law countries where civil-law notaries exist, particularly those from
Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...
, are often confused by the office of notary public and have been defrauded by dishonest notaries misrepresenting themselves as having legal powers. Thus, in some states, there have been ongoing efforts to prohibit notaries public from listing themselves as ''notario público''. Such a law has existed for more than fifteen years in
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. Similar laws now exist in
Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
,
Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
,
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
,
Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
and
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
.
Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
(1997) and
Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
(1999) have enacted statutes and regulations, based on the Model Civil Law Notary Act, allowing for the appointment of Florida or Alabama attorneys as civil-law notaries with the power to authenticate documents, facts and transactions. This is not the same as a notary public appointment. Attorneys with a minimum of 5 years of Bar membership are appointed after specialized training and state examination. Acts of Florida and Alabama civil-law notaries are given both domestic and international effect under their enabling statutes. A civil law notary statute was proposed in Illinois in 2002, but was not enacted into law.


See also

*
Barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...
*
Lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...
*
Notary public A notary public ( notary or public notary; notaries public) of the common law is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with general financial transactions, estates, deeds, powers- ...
*
Solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...


Notes


Footnotes


References

* K.M.M. de Wit & A.A. Tomlow. “National Report: The Netherlands”, ''Notarius International'' 7, no. 1–2 (2002): 8–38. * Christian Hertel. “Länderbericht Deutschland”, ''Notarius International'' 6, no. 1 (2001): 20–54. * * Alfred E. Piombino, ''Notary Public Handbook: Principles, Practices & Cases''. National Edition. East Coast Publishing, 2011. * * Helen G. Saradi. ''Notai e documenti greci dall'età di Giustiniano al XIX secolo'', vol. 1: ''Il sistema notarile bizantino (VIXV secolo)''. Milan: Dott. A. Giuffre Editore, 1999. * Μathias Schmoeckel & Werner Schubert, eds. ''Handbuch zur Geschichte des Notariats der europäischen Traditionen''. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2009. * Peter Zablud. ''Principles of Notarial Practice''. Melbourne: Psophidian, 2005.


External links


The International Union of (Civil Law) Notaries

Forum of Young Civil Law Notaries – Access to the Civil Law Notary Profession in the UE (in Spanish)

The English page at notaires.fr (French site)



National Association of Civil-law Notaries (USA)

Latin American Online Notary in the UK and other countries in Europe (in Portuguese)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Civil Law Notary Notary Notaries