Notarial proceedings for certifying the authenticity of a signature on documents in the practice of a consul: current issues

The article analyzes consular practice for conducting notarial proceedings for certifying a person’s signature on a document. Discrepancy detected Part 3 of Article 78 of the Law of Ukraine «On Notarу»and sub-item 3.13.3 item 3.13. Chapter 3 of the Regulation on the procedure for performing notarial acts in diplomatic missions and consular institutions of Ukraine, which states that an official of a consular institution of Ukraine when certifying the authenticity of a signature does not certify the facts set forth in the document, but only confirms that the signature was made by a certain person. This Regulation also contradicts Part 3 of Article 47 of the Law of Ukraine «On Notary», which stipulates that: «Documents that do not meet the requirements of the legislation or contain information that degrades the honor, dignity and business reputation of an individual or the business reputation of a legal entity shall not be accepted for notarial actions...» But the consul must be guided by the Law as a higher regulatory act than the Regulation. Therefore, this provision of the Law indicates that in order to certify the authenticity of a signature on a document, in particular, on an application that will be valid on the territory of Ukraine, the consul is obliged to carefully familiarize himself with it and if he establishes that the application does not meet the requirements of the legislation or contains information that degrades the honor, dignity and business reputation of an individual or the business reputation of a legal entity, then he cannot certify the person’s signature on it. In order to ensure the legality of the consul’s actions, the author proposed to make a reservation in the certification inscription of the addressees of the applications that «The facts stated by the applicant in the document were not verified by the consul. The applicant was warned by the consul that in the event of harm to the addressee of the application due to the inaccurate information provided therein, he will bear the liability provided for by law.» It was also proposed at the legislative level to distinguish the essence of such notarial proceedings as: notarial proceedings for certifying the authenticity of a person’s signature on a document, in particular an application and certification of an application as a transaction, as well as from notarial proceedings for certifying the authenticity of an official’s signature in the procedure for legalizing documents.