Careful assessment is needed when limiting the age of practicing notary public.

During the meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on April 1, when giving opinions on the draft revised Law on Notarization, delegates still had different opinions regarding the regulations on the age of notaries.

The draft revised Law on Notarization stipulates that the age limit for practicing notaries is up to 70 years old; at the same time, to ensure the stability of notarization activities, the draft law stipulates a transitional period for notaries over 70 years old who are practicing notarization at the time this law comes into effect, to continue practicing notarization for a maximum period of 2 years.

Chairman of the Ethnic Council Y Thanh Ha Nie Kdam said that, compared with the Labor Code and some specialized laws, it should be revised to not exceed 65 years old to ensure health.

Meanwhile, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh, Head of the Delegation Affairs Committee, proposed a thorough assessment to limit the age of notary practice.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh cited data from the Ministry of Health showing that the average life expectancy of Vietnamese people has increased to nearly 74 years, many people at 70 years old are still clear-headed and healthy. Therefore, if there is a strict regulation of "not over 70 years old" it could cause a waste of social resources. Therefore, there needs to be a more feasible regulation.

View of the meeting. Photo: QH

Commenting on the draft revised Law on Notarization, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue assessed that the draft law was carefully prepared and revised quite comprehensively. While the current law has 81 articles, only 9 articles are kept, 61 articles are revised and many new articles are added. The basic content is consistent with the Party and State's policies and guidelines, promoting administrative reform, judicial reform and innovating to improve this service.

The draft revised Law on Notarization prohibits notaries from disclosing information about the content of the notarization, unless the person requesting the notarization agrees in writing or the law provides otherwise. However, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue said that this is not consistent with the Civil Code and stated: “Information on notarized documents is related to many parties, and the Civil Code has a principle of privacy that cannot be violated. Now, if the person requesting the notarization agrees, how can the rights of the related parties be disclosed?”

Chairman of the Economic Committee Vu Hong Thanh suggested clarifying the prohibitions to avoid inconsistent understandings when implementing them, for example, prohibiting notaries from advertising in the mass media about notaries and their organizations; prohibiting participation in managing businesses outside of notary organizations; performing brokerage and agency activities; participating in profit sharing in transactions for which they notarize...

Vice Chairman of the Law Committee Ngo Trung Thanh speaks. Photo: QH

Vice Chairman of the Law Committee Ngo Trung Thanh said that the documents in the Draft Law File have been fully ensured according to the provisions of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents. However, regarding the specific content of the File, the Standing Committee of the Law Committee requested the drafting agency to continue to supplement and complete a number of documents to improve the quality of the Draft Law File before submitting it to the National Assembly at the 7th session (May 2024).

Accordingly: Review the contents of the draft Law to supplement and complete the full Policy Impact Assessment Report, ensuring compliance with the provisions of Point d, Clause 1, Article 64 of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents and the contents of the draft Law. In particular, it is necessary to review administrative procedures to clarify the necessity and reasonableness of amending and supplementing these procedures according to the principle of not extending the implementation time compared to current legal regulations, not setting new procedures; The Law implementation summary report needs to continue to supplement some information and data to prove as a basis for proposing new policies; The report integrating gender equality issues needs to clarify the basis for limiting the age limit for practicing notary public to no more than 70 years old for both men and women.

Concluding the session on the draft revised Notary Law, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh requested the drafting and reviewing agency to continue reviewing to ensure consistency of the legal system as well as between the provisions in this law; absorb and study opinions for official review, and send documents to National Assembly deputies before the 7th session according to the prescribed time.

According to VNA/Tin Tuc Newspaper

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