The Gazette 1973

he may likewise be appointed to conduct the liquidation and draw the involved accounts where a partition is being carried out through the court; again, where a public authority is compulsorily acquiring property, he may be appointed to form part of the commission to decide the compensation payable (but not, of course, where the expropriation force concerns any of his own clients). Practical work of Notaries Hitherto the description of the notary's functions has stemmed from the analysis of a statutory definition. From a practical point of view, a notary might divide his work into the following four categories : (1) Family affairs, such as marriage settlements, wills and the administration of estates. (2) Conveyancing: conveyances (ventes) of immov- ables form a substantial and lucrative part of most notarial practices. Here must also be included the in- creasingly important Reglements de Copropriete, a form of co-ownership of apartments by floors, exten- sively developed during the present century, especially at Grenoble and Lyons. (3) Company affairs, such as company formations, increases of capital, and the like : in this sphere the notary, unlike the solicitor, has held his own against the accountants. (4) Miscellaneous matters not falling within any of the other headings, and including advising on almost every difficulty and problem of daily life. From this division by way of subject-matter it will be seen that the notary takes no part in litigation. His jurisdiction only extends to cases where the parties voluntarily seek his assistance. If the parties are unable to reach agreement, he ceases to have jurisdiction, which then shifts to the courts. A place of dignity and honour By virtue of his functions, whether they be assumed or be attributed to him as a monopoly by the law, the notary occupies a place of great dignity and honour in French life. The disinterested counsellor of the parties, the protector of the interests of the inexper- ienced and legally incapable, the trusted sharer of the inner-most secrets of the family and often the peace- maker in its disputes, he has a high legal and moral responsibility which generations of notaries have faith- fully discharged. The tradition of the profession is a powerful force, only rivalled perhaps by that of the English Bar, and in its official publicity to school- leavers and students the profession declares "one can be proud to belong to a profession of social and economic importance which with a total personnel of 42,000 members puts it at the head of all the legal pro- fessions." How does a notary differ from a solicitor? The English solicitor differs principally from the French notary in having no jurisdiction qua solicitor to authenticate the agreements and instruments of his clients. The monopoly of the solicitor, which means that certain instruments cannot be drawn up except by the privileged few competent in that behalf, should not be confused with the authenticity which a notary may bestow on his actes : the English conveyance, for ex- ample, is in French eyes an acte sous seing prive, even though, because of its subject-matter, English law has reserved its preparation to a restricted clas« of persons. 240

of assuring the deposit and of issuing certified copies of the actes which they receive. The notary has the duty of safeguarding the custody of the originals of the actes which he receives en minute. An acte drawn en minute is an actt the original of which is kept by the notary who has drawn it, certified copies only being given to the parties or the persons legally entitled to call for copies. It is opposed to an acte drawn en brevet, where the original document signed by the notary is handed to one of the parties and a plain copy is kept in the notary's office. The acte en brevet is the exception and that en minute the rule. Only certain actes may be drawn en brevet. It will be realised that the whole notarial system depends on the conservation of these minutes. To this end elaborate rules exist regarding their custody and their transmission where a practice changes hands. Further, as all actes require to be registered at a government office and certain regis- tration duties paid, the notary must keep a reper- toire, in the form of a chronological table, of all the actes which he receives. This repertoire is periodically called in for inspection by the registration officials, so as to prevent the evasion of these duties. Notaries mu:t keep documents for 125 years The notary, therefore, by reason of his duty to con- serve his actes en minutes, is made into an archivist. Unlike the solicitor, he has the duty and expense of keeping at his office a mass of documents, which for convenience are usually bound chronologically into volumes, and which are commonly referred to as his "minutes". He is obliged to keep the minutes of him- self and his predecessors for 125 years. As minutes exceed this age, they are periodically delivered up to the national or district archives. Notaries must give unbiased careful advice The statutory definition does not exhaust the func- tions usually exercised by the notary, although one may observe that it is largely due to his statutory attri- butes that these other functions have attached them- selves to his office. Apart from the preparation of auth- entic actes, which in itself requires considerable skill in draftsmanship, the notary is often called upon to advise his clients in all manner of questions affecting their legal rights, and he does well to weigh carefully what advice he gices. For, in any dispute which may subse- quently arise, the courts before whom the matter is heard will not be slow to rebuke the notary who has advised his client amiss. Moreover, before any acte is signed, he must fully instruct the parties in the law as to the effect of the engagements into which they pro- pose to enter. Further, the notary may have to act as judge or arbitrator between the parties who resort to him, and he should seek to hold the scales evenly. It is his duty to be impartial: he must not take sides. The moral obligation upon him to give sound and unbiased advice is heavy, for the parties having need of his services often place absolute confidence in him, due to their own ignorance of the law and to the high prestige of his office. Nor is the obligation moral only, for its breach may create legal liability for negligence. Specialised functions Certain specialised functions have also been con- ferred on him by the legislature: thus, he may be appointed by the court to represent persons who are presumed to be "absents" in inventories or partitions;