The appointment to the office of notary public and the organisation of the notarial profession : a comparative study

Abstract

The so-called "Latin Notary" plays a key role in transactions between private individuals in most countries of continental Europe, in all the countries of Latin America, in the State of Louisiana and in the province of Quebec. At the same time, the notary is a public officer who besides putting into clear legal form the agreement between the parties, attributes public fa.ith to documents he prepares. Through this, he helps maintain legal order as much as possible by lessening the possibility of litigation. In most countries, including Malta, emphasis is placed on the public nature of the office of notary public and this is reflected both in the appointment to the office and in the organization of the profession. This dissertation proposes to focus on the law in Malta and in Italy, France, Germany and Belgium, with occasional forays into the law of Quebec, with a view to analysing the various issues being discussed in notarial circles regarding the following: (a) the academic and practical education of future notaries; (b) the State examination; (c) the numerus clausus ( d) the fixed tariffs; and ( e) the notary's territorial jurisdiction. The organization of the profession together with various controls that the law lays down in the interests of the notary and of society will also be discussed. In the final chapter of this dissertation I shall see whether various features in the laws of these larger countries could be introduced in a small country such as Malta without drastically changing the peculiarities of the Maltese notarial profession.