declan_murphy@hotmail.com wrote:
> jwb@csse.monash.edu.au wrote:
>> The European civil-law notary (and the Japanese 公証人) really
>> has no equivalent in Australia. I am at one with KG on this.
> 
> Is there a reasonably widely accepted translation into English of
> 公証人?

You could say "notary public", but that would not be very good at all.
The notary of the civil-law jurisdictions is an elite class of lawyer.
There is no equivalent in the common law jurisdictions, although Florida
and Alabama have statutes that have created similar offices. In most
civil law states, transactions such as wills, land transfers, adoptions,
and so on must go through a notary to be legally effective. Japan is
different in that the only transaction that requires a notary is a
corporation's articles of incorporation. (See 会社法, 第30条1項).

Hmm. I just took a peak at the 公証人法 and it seems there have been a
few amendments since my 2001 translation. I guess I have some work to do.

To give you an idea about notaries, there are less than 600 公証人 in
Japan. Just to be eligible to sit for the exam, one has to have been
practicing law in Japan as a bengoshi, prosecutor, or judge for at least
30 years. I have a pretty good law journal article on the civil law
notary system in general in PDF if you're interested in the topic. It's
been a pet research area of mine since law school, particularly the
Japanese system.

- Kevin

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