Through the recording of agreements in their acts, notaries can play a key role creating certainty and preventing disputes before they happen. on vellum by a calligrapher and sealed with the Archbishop’s seal. Of course, this historic setup is supplemented by modern practice and qualification rules. In order to qualify, notaries are required to undertake similar legal studies as solicitors, as well as further post-graduate study in the areas of Roman law, private international law (the conflict of laws) and notarial practice. In addition, for a notary’s first two years of practice, they must be supervised by an experienced notary approved by the regulator. Finally, although appointment as a notary is officially an appointment for life, modern regulations require notaries to hold an annual practising certificate and undertake annual professional development training. What is legalisation? Do all of your notarial acts need this? Legalisation is the process by which the authorities of one jurisdiction verify the authenticity of a public document for use in another jurisdiction. It is often a mandatory step before a public document can be accepted in other jurisdictions. Public documents include court orders, birth, marriage and death certificates, registry extracts and notarial acts. Traditionally, this involved a chain of authentications by each of the UK government, the embassy or consulate of the receiving jurisdiction in the UK and then occasionally the domestic authorities of the receiving jurisdiction, and sometimes even by one or more trade bodies in the UK. Each step involves the authentication of the previous authentication. For example, the UK government authenticates a signature or seal on a UK public document (e.g. a notarial act), the receiving jurisdiction’s embassy authenticates the UK government’s authentication and then the domestic authorities of the receiving jurisdiction authenticate their embassy’s authentication. However, many countries have now signed up to an international convention which seeks to simplify this rather arduous process by signatory countries accepting a single authentication certification in agreed form issued by the jurisdiction in which the public document is issued. The certificate is called an ‘apostille’. Not all notarial acts (and other public documents) need to be ‘legalised’ or ‘apostilled’. Whether this is necessary depends on the requirements of the receiving jurisdiction. In some cases it is a mandatory requirement, in other cases it is not mandatory but is requested for reasons of certainty and in other cases it is not required at all. It is important to check what is required in each case. Is electronic or remote ‘notarisation’ possible in England and Wales? In theory, it is possible to issue notarial acts in electronic form and it is possible to do so without the client being physically present by using video call technology and remote singing platforms. In certain circumstances, either the requirements of English law or the law of a receiving jurisdiction may mean that either remote or electronic acts are not permitted, such as when the notary is required to physically witness the signature of a client or where there is a specific requirement for a paper document. It is particularly important that whenever a notary is dealing with a document for an overseas jurisdiction, they check with lawyers in that jurisdiction whether or not remotely signed or electronic documents will be accepted. What are the challenges facing the profession? While at first glance the advent of remote technology, ‘secure’ digital signatures 74 LAWYER MONTHLY JULY 2023
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