Review article
Notaries public service in the EU - Philosophy of the profession and development trends, harmonization and standardization
Stefan Zimmermann
; German Notaries' Association, Koeln, Germany
Andreas Schmitz-Vornmoor
; German Notaries' Association, Berlin, Germany
Abstract
Europe is truly on the path of ever increasing legal standardization.. This process is also affecting the function and activity of notaries public. The pace of the standardization differs, depending on the extent to which certain matters that need to be regulated are in line with the principle of free movement of goods and services. As regards status issues of the notary public service, this is an area of great contention. The same can be said when it comes to defending national regulations, their form and jurisdiction. Seeing that the traditions between EU countries differ so much, we shall probably have to wait for decades before we see Europe united as a single legal domain. Moreover, in view of the fact that the legal tradition of continental Europe prevails in some European legislation we believe that there is also the need for legal standardization of notary public services. For it is only through the specific functions of the Latin type notary public service and the notary public distraint certificates that it is possible to realize those legal-economic and legal-political values which a modern law-based state must strive for in order to ensure the best protection of its citizens and consumers. Legal standardization must serve for the protection of the individual interests of citizens and for facilitating the enforcement of law. Therefore, it is necessary fo notaries public to take a more active role in legal standardization within the EU. Thus, talking about notary public offices, historically speaking, this closes the circle that draws its origins in the continental European tradition of Roman and Napoleonic law – transcending the existing national European borders.
Keywords
notaries public; harmonization; standardization; European Union
Hrčak ID:
45427
URI
Publication date:
21.12.2009.
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