Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long presented the report.
The Department of Justice will receive applications for the establishment of a Notary Office.
Presenting a report at the meeting, Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long said that the draft Law on Notarization (amended) consists of 10 chapters and 79 articles, built on the basis of keeping 9 articles, amending 61 articles, reducing 11 articles and adding 9 new articles out of a total of 81 articles of the 2014 Law on Notarization.
Regarding notaries, the draft Law stipulates that the legal practice age of notaries is up to 70 years old. In addition, the Government proposes to reduce the legal work time for appointing notaries from 5 years to 3 years; the application for appointment of notaries is reduced from 7 types of documents to 3 types, including: Appointment application, documents proving legal work time and health certificate.
Regulating the Director of the Department of Justice to appoint the Head of the Notary Office instead of assigning the appointment to the Chairman of the People's Committee of the province or centrally-run city as currently assigned; regulating the Department of Justice to be the agency receiving applications for the establishment of a Notary Office instead of the Provincial People's Committee as currently assigned to strengthen decentralization and delegation of authority.
The Draft Law has fundamentally amended and supplemented the provisions of the current Law on this issue to lay the foundation for the implementation of electronic notarization.
Specifically: Regulations on notary databases including 4 component databases; principles of building notary databases, principles of connection and information sharing between notary databases and related databases and management and decentralization of notary database management; clearer regulations on requirements for storing notary records, adjustments on storage periods, regulations on converting paper records into data message format; issuance of copies of notarized documents being stored at notary practice organizations that have temporarily suspended operations.
Delegates attending the meeting.
Examining this content, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Law Committee Ngo Trung Thanh stated that the Standing Committee of the Law Committee agrees with the comprehensive amendment of the Notary Law for the reasons stated in the Government's submission.
Regarding the scope of electronic notarization, the Standing Committee of the Law Committee agrees with the first opinion on not limiting the scope of electronic notarization but assigning the Government to prescribe a specific roadmap.
Regarding the model of Notary Office, the draft Law stipulates that Notary Offices operate under the partnership model. The Standing Committee of the Law Committee believes that not allowing the establishment of a Notary Office owned by a notary under the private enterprise model has limited the freedom to choose the form of practice organization for notaries. Furthermore, in order to contribute to strongly promoting the policy of socializing notary activities, especially in remote areas, where the level of civil and economic transactions is still low, and the demand for notary services of the people is not high, the type of small-scale Notary Office owned by a notary is very suitable.
Therefore, the Law Committee proposes to add to the draft Law the model of notary practice organization as a private enterprise in addition to the partnership company as in the current Law.
National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue speaks at the meeting.
Need to clarify the role of the Ministry of Justice
Speaking at the meeting, Politburo member and National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue said that notarization is a conditional business line under the Investment Law, and is also a type of essential and basic public service.
In principle, the Government is responsible for state management of this field, in which the Ministry of Justice is the focal agency. Previously, all types of products, goods and services were planned, however, according to the 2017 Planning Law, except for electricity, all other types of products, services and goods have been removed from planning. Therefore, there is no longer a master plan for the development of notary organizations.
“What is the role of the Government as a general state management agency? It must have a strategy and orientation for the development of this industry in each period,” said the National Assembly Chairman, and also stated that in cases where products, services, and goods have been removed from the planning, the Ministry assisting the Government in managing the specialized sector must issue standards, criteria, and conditions for localities to have a basis for implementation. However, the draft Law mentions standards, criteria, and conditions but does not specify which agency issued them.
The National Assembly Chairman said that this responsibility belongs to the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice issues legal documents in this field, first of all, the criteria and standards for establishing notary organizations. "Abandoning planning does not mean there is no management, but management by other methods, not just management by planning as before," the National Assembly Chairman emphasized.
Regarding the role of professional organizations, the draft Law has provisions on professional social organizations of notaries. The National Assembly Chairman suggested that research should be conducted to have specific regulations on the role, responsibility and ability of this organization to participate in the management of notaries, in the direction that the State should have a process of transferring to professional associations.
Regarding ensuring consistency in the legal system, the National Assembly Chairman expressed concern about the disclosure of information content. Accordingly, the draft states the prohibited act: “Disclosing information about the content of notarization, except in cases where the person requesting notarization agrees in writing.”
The National Assembly Chairman said that this is not in accordance with the Civil Code, because the information on notarized documents is not only related to the person requesting notarization but also related to many other subjects, possibly two or more parties.
“In principle, in the Civil Code, all privacy secrets are not allowed to be violated. If information can be disclosed only with the written consent of the person requesting the notarization, what about the privacy rights of others?”, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue asked.
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