NOTARY BODIES OF UKRAINE

Notes: draughtsman (=draftsman) автор документа, законопроекту

shorthand (writer) стенографіст

draught (draft) of will проект заповіту

conveyance передача (майна)

The origin of the term “notarius” traces back to the Roman law, where it meant a draughtsman, a shorthand writer, who took notes of the proceedings in the Senate or a court, prepared draughts of wills, conveyances, etc.

The role of the notary in civil law countries is much greater than in common law countries. The most typical areas of practice for civil law notaries are in property conveyance and registration, contract drafting, commercial transactions, successions and other estate related matters. They usually have no authority to appear before courts on behalf of their clients; their role is limited to drafting, authenticating, and archiving certain types of important transactional documents.

The notary service board (notariate) in Ukraine is the system of notary bodies and officials whose functions are to certify rights and facts of legal significance and to perform other notarial acts provided for by the law in order to give them legal authenticity.

Notarial acts in Ukraine are committed by the public notaries, working in the state notary offices and the record offices ( archives), and private notaries. The documents drawn up by the public and private notaries have identical legal force. The only difference between them is that fees for services charged by public notaries are regulated and set by the state. Fees paid to private notaries are not regulated and are set by private notaries themselves.

The notarial acts may also be exercised by the authorized public officials of the executive committees in the local councils, consulates or diplomatic representative offices of Ukraine.

Notaries are not allowed by law to work in courts, police, and prosecutor’s office and represent people in courts or any other government offices.

Notaries of Ukraine are empowered to discharge their professional duties in strict conformity with the law and the oath of allegiance, to provide legal aid to citizens, enterprises, public organizations in realization of their rights and in the defence of their legal interests, to explain their rights and duties, to warn them about the consequences of their notarial acts.

The public notaries are authorized to perform the following notarial acts:

1) to attest contracts, wills, transactions, deeds, marriage contracts, powers of attorney, etc;

2) to verify copies of documents, to authenticate signatures, translations of documents;

3) to certify hereditary rights, deeds of purchase-and-sale, conveyance of property, gifts;

4) to certify the fact that a citizen is alive;

5) to certify the fact that a citizen stays in a certain place;

6) to certify the identity of a citizen and the person on the photo;

7) to perform certain official acts, especially in commercial matters, such as protesting notes and bills;

8) to prepare marine protests.