Original scientific paper
Notaries Public and Public Registers
Hano Ernst
; Faculty of law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Tatjana Josipović
; Faculty of law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Notaries public and public registers are extremely important categories of modern legal transactions. Notaries public and public registers perform similar functions of protecting private and public interests, but their interrelatedness became more visible only after the introduction of digitalization and networking. In this new system notaries public have adapted their role and become an independent source of information. Their traditional role of having occasionally a monopoly for drawing up certain certificates has been supplemented by the fact that their participation in drafting them now gives the documents special legal force, and thus the legal system of the Republic of Croatia has been extended to include the notary public's participation in establishing insurance in rem over movables and rights.
In registry procedures notaries public play a particulary important role, as they are frequently involved in the very course of the procedure. Currently Croatia is particularly interested in the development of electronic communication between the notaries public and the land registry divisions of courts. Though there are no legal or technical preconditions for this as yet, with minor interventions in regulations and the necessary technical support this objective could be achieved. It has in fact already been partially achieved in the e-company project, which has integrated the notary public service in the experimental company registration procedure within the HITRO.HR system (a one-stop shop for increasing expediency). Such projects are in keeping with European standards and requirements that need to be met by the Croatian judiciary. The full independence of notaries and an example of their administration of the public register is best seen in the case of the Croatian testamentary register similar to European testamentary registers that are also administered by notaries public.
Finally, notaries public play an important role in accessing public registers, however their role will depend on the accessability of data in public registers and on the quality and legal force of the publicly accessible documents. At the moment, their potential participation in issuing land registry certificates is being considered, since this would considerably reduce the work load of land registry divisions; however, in view of the present technical limitations there is a need for exercising caution. All these roles that notaries public play in registering data show the increasing interrelationship between public registries and notaries public, so that in some cases there is a transfer of registration jurisdiction to notaries public, whereas in all cases they act as a bridge between the party and the public register which they themselves do not administer. In the electronic world this role of the notary public is becoming a new standard.
Keywords
notary public; land register; court register; testamentary register; public register
Hrčak ID:
45425
URI
Publication date:
21.12.2009.
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