The International Union of Notaries, meeting in Dakar, adopts the long-developed Code of Notariat

Delegation of the Lithuanian Chamber of Notaries attended the International Union of Notaries (UINL) institutional meetings which were held in Dakar, Senegal, from 8 to 10 May 2025.

UINL adopted a long-awaited document - the International Code of Notariat.

The meeting of the UINL General Council and the Extraordinary Assembly of Notaries was attended by the President of the Lithuanian Chamber of Notaries, Marius Stračkaitis, and a member of the Presidium of the Chamber of Notaries, the Notary of the City of Vilnius Dainius Palaima.

The main aim of the drafting and adoption of this Code was strengthening the notarial systems of the world civil law tradition. It took more than two years of intensive collective work to prepare this Code. It brought together and defined the principles and values of the global notarial profession, taking into account the diversity of the notarial profession in the Member States.

“Respecting the diversity and richness of national laws, both present and future, the Union does not intend, with this Code, to impose a uniform model. (…) This Code helps to clarify what constitutes Continental law by demonstrating that the notarial institution is one of its essential and characteristic components. Continental law aims to strike a balance between moral and social values, ensuring legal security. Through their impartiality, notaries contribute to contractual equilibrium. Furthermore, by the nature and effects of the instruments they draw up, notaries address three fundamental needs of legal security: the need for prevention, met by a public service that eliminates uncertainties and enables individuals and businesses to act with confidence; the need for harmony, fulfilled by preventing conflicts in the human relationships that shape society; and the need for protection of individuals and their rights, addressed through the creation of legal instruments that are beyond dispute and endure over time”. (Extract from the preamble to the International Code of Notariat adopted in Dakar on 9 May 2025).