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Civil law (legal system)
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This article is about a type of system of law, contrasting with common law. For non-criminal law in a common-law system, see Civil law (common law). For other uses, see Civil law (disambiguation).
Civil law is a legal system originating in mainland Europe and adopted in much of the world. The civil law system is intellectualized within the framework of Roman law, and with core principles codified into a referable system, which serves as the primary source of law. The civil law system is often contrasted with the common law system, which originated in medieval England, whose intellectual framework historically came from uncodified judge-made case law, and gives precedential authority to prior court decisions.[1]
Historically, a civil law is the group of legal ideas and systems ultimately derived from the Corpus Juris Civilis, but heavily overlaid by Napoleonic, Germanic, canonical, feudal, and local practices,[2] as well as doctrinal strains such as natural law, codification, and legal positivism.
Conceptually, civil law proceeds from abstractions, formulates general principles, and distinguishes substantive rules from procedural rules.[3] It holds case law secondary and subordinate to statutory law. Civil law is often paired with the inquisitorial system, but the terms are not synonymous.
There are key differences between a statute and a code.[4] The most pronounced features of civil systems are their legal codes, with concise and broadly applicable texts that typically avoid factually specific scenarios.[5][4] The short articles in a civil law code deal in generalities and stand in contrast with ordinary statutes, which are often very long and very detailed.[4]

Contents
1    Overview
1.1    Origin and features
1.2    Subcategories
1.3    Prominent civil codes
2    History
3    Codification
4    Differentiation from other major legal systems
5    Subgroups
6    See also
7    References
8    Bibliography
9    External links
Overview
Origin and features
Civil law is sometimes referred to as neo-Roman law, Romano-Germanic law or Continental law. The expression "civil law" is a translation of Latin jus civile, or "citizens' law", which was the late imperial term for its legal system, as opposed to the laws governing conquered peoples (jus gentium); hence, the Justinian Code's title Corpus Juris Civilis. Civil law practitioners, however, traditionally refer to their system in a broad sense as jus commune. The civil law system is the most widespread system of law in the world, in force in various forms in about 150 countries.[6] It draws heavily from Roman law, arguably the most intricate known legal system before the modern era.

Legal systems of the world.[7] Civil law based systems are in turquoise.
In civil law legal systems where codes exist, the primary source of law is the law code, a systematic collection of interrelated articles,[8] arranged by subject matter in some pre-specified order.[9] Codes explain the principles of law, rights and entitlements, and how basic legal mechanisms work. The purpose of codification is to provide all citizens with manners and written collection of the laws which apply to them and which judges must follow. Law codes are laws enacted by a legislature, even if they are in general much longer than other laws. Rather than a compendium of statutes or catalog of case law, the code sets out general principles as rules of law.[8] Other major legal systems in the world include common law, Islamic law, Halakha, and canon law.
Unlike common law systems, civil law jurisdictions deal with case law apart from any precedent value. Civil law courts generally decide cases using codal provisions on a case-by-case basis, without reference to other (or even superior) judicial decisions.[10] In actual practice, an increasing degree of precedent is creeping into civil law jurisprudence, and is generally seen in many nations' highest courts.[10] While the typical French-speaking supreme court decision is short, concise and devoid of explanation or justification, in Germanic Europe, the supreme courts can and do tend to write more verbose opinions, supported by legal reasoning.[10] A line of similar case decisions, while not precedent per se, constitute jurisprudence constante.[10] While civil law jurisdictions place little reliance on court decisions, they tend to generate a phenomenal number of reported legal opinions.[10] However, this tends to be uncontrolled, since there is no statutory requirement that any case be reported or published in a law report, except for the councils of state and constitutional courts.[10] Except for the highest courts, all publication of legal opinions are unofficial or commercial.[11]
Subcategories
Civil law systems can be divided into:
those where Roman law in some form is still living law but there has been no attempt to create a civil code: Andorra and San Marino
those with uncodified mixed systems in which civil law is an academic source of authority but common law is also influential: Scotland and the Roman-Dutch law countries (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Guyana)
those with codified mixed systems in which civil law is the background law but has its public law heavily influenced by common law: Puerto Rico, Philippines, Quebec and Louisiana
the Scandinavian legal systems, which are of a hybrid character since their background law is a mix of civil law and Scandinavian customary law and they have been partially codified. Likewise, the laws of the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark) mix Norman customary law and French civil law.
those with comprehensive codes that exceed a single civil code, such as France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Spain: it is this last category that is normally regarded as typical of civil law systems, and is discussed in the rest of this article.
Prominent civil codes
A prominent example of a civil law code is the Napoleonic Code (1804), named after French emperor Napoleon. The Napoleonic code comprises three components:
the law of persons
property law, and
commercial law.
Another prominent civil code is the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch or BGB), which went into effect in the German empire in 1900.[12] The German Civil Code is highly influential, inspiring the civil codes in countries such as Japan, South Korea and Switzerland (1907). It is divided into five parts:[12]
The General Part, covering definitions and concepts, such as personal rights and legal personality.
Obligations, including concepts of debt, sale and contract;
Things (property law), including immovable and movable property;
Domestic relations (family law); and
Succession (estate law).
History
Civil law takes as its major inspiration classical Roman law (c. AD 1–250), and in particular Justinian law (6th century AD), and further expanded and developed in the late Middle Ages under the influence of canon law.[13] The Justinian Code's doctrines provided a sophisticated model for contracts, rules of procedure, family law, wills, and a strong monarchical constitutional system.[14] Roman law was received differently in different countries. In some it went into force wholesale by legislative act, i.e., it became positive law, whereas in others it was diffused into society by increasingly influential legal experts and scholars.
Roman law continued without interruption in the Byzantine Empire until its final fall in the 15th century. However, given the multiple incursions and occupations by Western European powers in the late medieval period, its laws became widely implemented in the West. It was first received in the Holy Roman Empire partly because it was considered imperial law, and it spread in Europe mainly because its students were the only trained lawyers. It became the basis of Scots law, though partly rivaled by received feudal Norman law. In England, it was taught academically at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, but underlay only probate and matrimonial law insofar as both were inherited from canon law, and maritime law, adapted from lex mercatoria through the Bordeaux trade.
Consequently, neither of the two waves of Roman influence completely dominated in Europe. Roman law was a secondary source that was applied only when local customs and laws were found lacking on a certain subject. However, after a time, even local law came to be interpreted and evaluated primarily on the basis of Roman law, since it was a common European legal tradition of sorts, and thereby in turn influenced the main source of law. Eventually, the work of civilian glossators and commentators led to the development of a common body of law and writing about law, a common legal language, and a common method of teaching and scholarship, all termed the jus commune, or law common to Europe, which consolidated canon law and Roman law, and to some extent, feudal law.
Codification
See also: Codification (law)
An important common characteristic of civil law, aside from its origins in Roman law, is the comprehensive codification of received Roman law, i.e., its inclusion in civil codes. The earliest codification known is the Code of Hammurabi, written in ancient Babylon during the 18th century BC. However, this, and many of the codes that followed, were mainly lists of civil and criminal wrongs and their punishments. The codification typical of modern civilian systems did not first appear until the Justinian Code.
Germanic codes appeared over the 6th and 7th centuries to clearly delineate the law in force for Germanic privileged classes versus their Roman subjects and regulate those laws according to folk-right. Under feudal law, a number of private custumals were compiled, first under the Norman empire (Très ancien coutumier, 1200–1245), then elsewhere, to record the manorial—and later regional—customs, court decisions, and the legal principles underpinning them. Custumals were commissioned by lords who presided as lay judges over manorial courts in order to inform themselves about the court process. The use of custumals from influential towns soon became commonplace over large areas. In keeping with this, certain monarchs consolidated their kingdoms by attempting to compile custumals that would serve as the law of the land for their realms, as when Charles VII of France in 1454 commissioned an official custumal of Crown law. Two prominent examples include the Coutume de Paris (written 1510; revised 1580), which served as the basis for the Napoleonic Code, and the Sachsenspiegel (c. 1220) of the bishoprics of Magdeburg and Halberstadt which was used in northern Germany, Poland, and the Low Countries.
The concept of codification was further developed during the 17th and 18th centuries AD, as an expression of both natural law and the ideas of the Enlightenment. The political ideals of that era was expressed by the concepts of democracy, protection of property and the rule of law. Those ideals required certainty of law, recorded, uniform law. So, the mix of Roman law and customary and local law gave way to law codification. Also, the notion of a nation-state implied recorded law that would be applicable to that state. There was also a reaction to law codification. The proponents of codification regarded it as conducive to certainty, unity and systematic recording of the law; whereas its opponents claimed that codification would result in the ossification of the law.
In the end, despite whatever resistance to codification, the codification of Continental European private laws moved forward. Codifications were completed by Denmark (1687), Sweden (1734), Prussia (1794), France (1804), and Austria (1811). The French codes were imported into areas conquered by Napoleon and later adopted with modifications in Poland (Duchy of Warsaw/Congress Poland; Kodeks cywilny 1806/1825), Louisiana (1807), Canton of Vaud (Switzerland; 1819), the Netherlands (1838), Serbia (1844), Italy and Romania (1865), Portugal (1867) and Spain (1888). Germany (1900), and Switzerland (1912) adopted their own codifications. These codifications were in turn imported into colonies at one time or another by most of these countries. The Swiss version was adopted in Brazil (1916) and Turkey (1926).
In theory, codes conceptualized in the civil law system should go beyond the compilation of discrete statutes, and instead state the law in a coherent, and comprehensive piece of legislation, sometimes introducing major reforms or starting anew.[15] In this regard, civil law codes are more similar to the Restatements of the Law, the Uniform Commercial Code (which drew from European inspirations), and the Model Penal Code in the United States. In the United States, U.S. states began codification with New York's 1850 Field Code (laying down civil procedure rules and inspired by European and Louisiana codes).[16] Other examples include California's codes (1872), and the federal revised statutes (1874) and the current United States Code (1926), which are closer to compilations of statute than to systematic expositions of law akin to civil law codes.
For the legal system of Japan, beginning in the Meiji Era, European legal systems—especially the civil law of Germany and France—were the primary models for emulation. In China, the German Civil Code was introduced in the later years of the Qing dynasty, emulating Japan. In addition, it formed the basis of the law of the Republic of China, which remains in force in Taiwan. Furthermore, Korea, Taiwan, and Manchuria, former Japanese colonies, have been strongly influenced by the Japanese legal system.
Some authors consider civil law the foundation for socialist law used in communist countries, which in this view would basically be civil law with the addition of Marxist-Leninist ideals. Even if this is so, civil law was generally the legal system in place before the rise of socialist law, and some Eastern European countries reverted to the pre-socialist civil law following the fall of socialism, while others continued using a socialist legal systems.
Differentiation from other major legal systems
The table below contains essential disparities (and in some cases similarities) between the world's four major legal systems.[8]
Common law    Civil law    Socialist law    Islamic law
Other names    Anglo-American, English, judge-made, legislation from the bench    Continental, Roman, Romano-Germanic, European Continental    Soviet    Religious law, Sharia
Source of law    Case law, statutes/legislation    Statutes/legislation    Statutes/legislation    Quran
Lawyers    Judges act as impartial referees; lawyers are responsible for presenting the case    Judges dominate trials    Judges dominate trials    Secondary role
Judges' qualifications    Career lawyers (appointed or elected)    Career judges    Career bureaucrats, Party members    Religious as well as legal training
Degree of judicial independence    High; separate from the executive and the legislative branches of government.    High; separate from the executive and the legislative branches of government.    Very limited    Ranges from very limited to high[17][18]
Juries    Provided at trial level in some jurisdictions    May adjudicate in conjunction with judges in serious criminal matters    Often used at lowest level    Allowed in Maliki school,[18] not allowed in other schools
Policy-making role    Courts share in balancing power    Courts have equal but separate power    Courts are subordinate to the legislature    Courts and other government branches are theoretically subordinate to the Shari'a. In practice, courts historically made the Shari'a, while today, the religious courts are generally subordinate to the executive.
Examples    Australia, United Kingdom (except Scotland), Israel, India, Cyprus, Nigeria, Republic of Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, United States (except Louisiana), Canada (except Quebec), New Zealand, Pakistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh    All European Union states (except Ireland and Cyprus), all of continental South and Middle America (except Guyana and Belize), Quebec, all of East Asia (except Hong Kong), all of North Africa, Francophone and Lusophone Africa, Azerbaijan, Kuwait, Iraq, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Madagascar, Lebanon, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Louisiana    Soviet Union, PRC (except Hong Kong and Macau), North Korea    Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Sudan, Malaysia, Pakistan and Yemen.
Civil law is primarily contrasted with common law, which is the legal system developed first in England, and later among English-speaking peoples of the world. Despite their differences, the two systems are quite similar from a historical point of view. Both evolved in much the same way, though at different paces. The Roman law underlying civil law developed mainly from customary law that was refined with case law and legislation. Canon law further refined court procedure. Similarly, English law developed from Anglo-Saxon customary law, Danelaw and Norman law, further refined by case law and legislation. The differences are
Roman law had crystallized many of its principles and mechanisms in the form of the Justinian Code, which drew from case law, scholarly commentary, and senatorial statutes
Civilian case law has persuasive authority, not binding authority as under common law
Codification, however, is by no means a defining characteristic of a civil law system. For example, the statutes that govern the civil law systems of Sweden and other Nordic countries and the Roman-Dutch countries are not grouped into larger, expansive codes like those in French and German law.[19]
Subgroups
The term civil law comes from English legal scholarship and is used in English-speaking countries to lump together all legal systems of the jus commune tradition. However, legal comparativists and economists promoting the legal origins theory[who?] prefer to subdivide civil law jurisdictions into four distinct groups:
Napoleonic: France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Chile, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, other CPLP countries, Macau, former Portuguese territories in India (Goa, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli), Malta, Romania, and most of the Arab world[which?] when Islamic law is not used. Former colonies include Quebec (Canada) and Louisiana (U.S.).
The Chilean Code is an original work of jurist and legislator Andrés Bello. Traditionally, the Napoleonic Code has been considered the main source of inspiration for the Chilean Code. However, this is true only with regard to the law of obligations and the law of things (except for the principle of abstraction), while it is not true at all in the matters of family and successions. This code was integrally adopted by Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela (although only for one year). According to other Latin American experts of its time, like Augusto Teixeira de Freitas (author of the "Esboço de um Código Civil para o Brasil") or Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield (main author of the Argentinian Civil Code), it is the most important legal accomplishments of Latin America.
Cameroon, a former colony of both France and United Kingdom, is bi-juridical/mixed
Germanistic: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Latvia, Estonia, Roman-Dutch, Czech Republic, Russia, Lithuania, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Ukraine, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand
South Africa, a former colony of the United Kingdom, was heavily influenced by colonists from the Netherlands and therefore is bi-juridical/mixed.
Nordic: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden
Chinese (except Hong Kong and Macau) is a mixture of civil law and socialist law. Presently, Chinese laws absorb some features of common law system, especially those related to commercial and international transactions. Hong Kong, although part of China, uses common law. The Basic Law of Hong Kong ensures the use and status of common law in Hong Kong. Macau continues to have a Portuguese legal system of civil law.
However, some of these legal systems are often and more correctly said to be of hybrid nature:
Napoleonic to Germanistic influence: The Italian civil code of 1942 replaced the original one of 1865, introducing germanistic elements due to the geopolitical alliances of the time.[20] This approach has been imitated by other countries, including Portugal (1966), the Netherlands (1992), Brazil (2002) and Argentina (2014). Most of them have innovations introduced by the Italian legislation, including the unification of the civil and commercial codes.[21]
Germanistic to Napoleonic influence: The Swiss civil code is considered mainly influenced by the German civil code and partly influenced by the French civil code. The civil code of the Republic of Turkey is a slightly modified version of the Swiss code, adopted in 1926 during Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's presidency as part of the government's progressive reforms and secularization.
Some systems of civil law do not fit neatly into this typology, however. Polish law developed as a mixture of French and German civil law in the 19th century. After the reunification of Poland in 1918, five legal systems (French Napoleonic Code from the Duchy of Warsaw, German BGB from Western Poland, Austrian ABGB from Southern Poland, Russian law from Eastern Poland, and Hungarian law from Spisz and Orawa) were merged into one. Similarly, Dutch law, while originally codified in the Napoleonic tradition, has been heavily altered under influence from the Dutch native tradition of Roman-Dutch law (still in effect in its former colonies). Scotland's civil law tradition borrowed heavily from Roman-Dutch law. Swiss law is categorized as Germanistic, but it has been heavily influenced by the Napoleonic tradition, with some indigenous elements added in as well.
Louisiana private law is primarily a Napoleonic system. Louisiana is the only U.S. state partially based on French and Spanish codes and ultimately Roman law, as opposed to English common law.[22] In Louisiana, private law was codified into the Louisiana Civil Code. Current Louisiana law has converged considerably with American law, especially in its public law, judicial system, and adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code (except for Article 2) and certain legal devices of American common law.[23] In fact, any innovation, whether private or public, has been decidedly common law in origin.[citation needed] Quebec law, whose private law is also of French civil origin, has developed along the same lines, adapting in the same way as Louisiana to the public law and judicial system of Canadian common law. By contrast, Quebec private law has innovated mainly from civil sources. To a lesser extent, other states formerly part of the Spanish Empire, such as Texas and California, have also retained aspects of Spanish civil law into their legal system, for example community property. The legal system of Puerto Rico exhibits similarities to that of Louisiana: a civil code whose interpretations rely on both the civil and common law systems. Because Puerto Rico's Civil Code is based on the Spanish Civil Code of 1889, available jurisprudence has tended to rely on common law innovations due to the code's age and in many cases, obsolete nature.
Several Islamic countries have civil law systems that contain elements of Islamic law.[24] As an example, the Egyptian Civil Code of 1810 that developed in the early 19th century—which remains in force in Egypt is the basis for the civil law in many countries of the Arab world where the civil law is used— is based on the Napoleonic Code, but its primary author Abd El-Razzak El-Sanhuri attempted to integrate principles and features of Islamic law in deference to the unique circumstances of Egyptian society.
Japanese Civil Code was considered as a mixture of roughly 60 percent of the German civil code and roughly 30 percent of the French civil code and 8 percent of Japanese customary law and 2 percent of the English law.[25] The code includes the doctrine of ultra vires and a precedent of Hadley v Baxendale from English common law system.
See also
Civil law notary
Rule according to higher law
Tort
List of national legal systems
References
Husa, Jaakko (2016-05-02). The Future of Legal Families. 1. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935352.013.26.
Charles Arnold Baker, The Companion to British History, s.v. "Civilian" (London: Routledge, 2001), 308.
Michel Fromont, Grands systèmes de droit étrangers, 4th edn. (Paris: Dalloz, 2001), 8.
Steiner, Eva (2018). "Codification". French Law. 1. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198790884.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-879088-4.
“The role of legislation is to set, by taking a broad approach, the general propositions of the law, to establish principles which will be fertile in application, and not to get down to the details. . . .” Alain Levasseur, Code Napoleon or Code Portalis?, 43 Tul. L. Rev. 762, 769 (1969).
"The World Factbook". cia.gov.
Alphabetical Index of the 192 United Nations Member States and Corresponding Legal Systems Archived 2016-07-22 at the Wayback Machine, Website of the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa
Neubauer, David W., and Stephen S. Meinhold. Judicial Process: Law, Courts, and Politics in the United States. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007, p. 28.
"Glossary of Legal Terms", 12th District Court – Jackson, County, MI, retrieved on 12 June 2009: [1]
Reynolds 1998, p. 58.
Reynolds 1998, p. 59.
"German Civil Code | German law code". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
"Roman Law and Its Influence". Infoplease.com. Retrieved 2011-08-18.
Kenneth Pennington, "Roman and Secular Law in the Middle Ages", Medieval Latin: An Introduction and Bibliographical Guide, edd. F.A.C. Mantello and A.G. Rigg (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University Press of America, 1996), 254–266; [html], available at "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2011-08-27., retrieved 27 August 2011.
Steiner, Eva (2018). "Codification". French Law. 1. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198790884.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-879088-4.
Clark, David S. (2019), Reimann, Mathias; Zimmermann, Reinhard (eds.), "Development of Comparative Law in the United States", The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Law, Oxford University Press, pp. 147–180, doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198810230.013.6, ISBN 978-0-19-881023-0
Badr, Gamal Moursi (Spring 1978), "Islamic Law: Its Relation to Other Legal Systems", The American Journal of Comparative Law, 26 (2 [Proceedings of an International Conference on Comparative Law, Salt Lake City, Utah, February 24–25, 1977]): 187–198 [196–198], doi:10.2307/839667, JSTOR 839667
Makdisi, John A. (June 1999), "The Islamic Origins of the Common Law", North Carolina Law Review, 77 (5): 1635–1739
Smits, Jan (ed.); Dotevall, Rolf (2006), Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law, '63: Sweden', Edward Elgar Publishing, ISBN 978-1-84542-013-0
"Towards a civil code: the italian experience". teoriaestoriadeldirittoprivato.com.
Franklin, Mitchell (April 1951). ""On the Legal Method of the Uniform Commercial Code" by Mitchell Franklin". Duke.edu. 16 (2): 330–343.
"How the Code Napoleon makes Louisiana law different". LA-Legal. Archived from the original on 2006-10-31. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
"Louisiana – Judicial system". City-data.com. Retrieved 2011-08-18.
"Civil Law Archived 2009-10-28 at the Wayback Machine". Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2009.
和仁陽「岡松参太郎 – 法比較と学理との未完の綜合 – 」『法学教室』No.183 (in Japanese) p. 79
Bibliography
Glendon, Mary Ann, Paolo G. Carozza, & Colin B. Picker. Comparative Legal Traditions in a Nutshell, 4th edn. West Academic Publishing, 2015.
Glendon, Mary Ann, Paolo G. Carozza, & Colin B. Picker. Comparative Legal Traditions: Text, Materials and Cases on Western Law, 4th edn. West Academic Publishing, 2014.
Glenn, H. Patrick. Legal Traditions of the World, 5th edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014 (1st edn 2000).
Hamza, G. "Origine e sviluppo degli ordinamenti giusprivatistici moderni in base alla tradizione del diritto romano", Andavira Editora, Santiago de Compostela, 2013.
Kischel, Uwe. Comparative Law. Trans. Andrew Hammel. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Lydorf, Claudia. (2011). Romance Legal Family. Mainz: Institute of European History.
MacQueen, Hector L. "Scots Law and the Road to the New Ius Commune." Electronic Journal of Comparative Law 4, no. 4 (December 2000).
Moreno Navarrete, M. A. The Concept of Civil Law. Historical Dimension. Revista de Derecho Actual, vol. III, 2017.
John Henry Merryman & Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo. The Civil Law Tradition: An Introduction to the Legal Systems of Europ

         Notary TermINOLOGY and Definitions

 

July 14, 2019

 

Notary Terms and Definitions
The following notary terms and their definitions are written in everyday language for notaries public. For a more comprehensive list of terms and their definitions consider purchasing Barron’s Dictionary of Legal Terms from ASN’s online store.


Acknowledgment: a notarial act whereby the signer of a document admits to an officer of the state, such as a notary public, that he signed the document; that he understands the contents of the document; and that he is aware of the consequences of executing the document by signing it. The signer also indicates to the notary that he signed the document of his own free will and was not coerced into signing a document that he did not want to sign. Acknowledgments are taken from signers of documents such as deeds, contracts and powers of attorney. By signing the document the signer agrees to the terms and conditions of the document. The signer does not have to sign the document in the presence of the notary, but the document must display the signer’s original wet ink signature.

Acknowledgment Certificate: a written statement usually found on a document just below the signer’s signature block that records and certifies the details of the acknowledgment notarial act that just took place. The certificate must contain a description of the site of the notarial act, the name(s) of the person(s) acknowledging their signing of the document, an indication that an acknowledgment notarial act was performed; and a statement that the signer personally appeared before the notary, understood the contents of the document and signed the document willingly. The notary also certifies the date that the acknowledgment was taken, signs the acknowledgment notarial certificate and places her notary seal on the certificate. By signing and sealing the acknowledgment certificate the notary certifies as an officer of the state that the acknowledgment notarial act described indeed took place.

Administer: to discharge the duties of an office; to give (as in the giving of an oath).

Affiant: the person making an affidavit.

Affidavit: a document in which the affiant makes a statement and swears or affirms under penalty of perjury that the information in the statement is the truth. The affidavit will contain a jurat notarial certificate. The affiant must sign the statement in the presence of the notary.

Affirmation: a solemn statement of truth made under penalty of perjury, equivalent by law to an oath, but without religious significance or reference to a Supreme Being.

Affix: to attach or impress the notary seal to a document.

Apostille: a certificate issued by the appropriate office of a state government (for example, the Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, etc. depending on the state) for purposes of authenticating a notary's signature and official status as a notary on a particular date. An apostille may be required for a notarized document that is bound for a foreign country that participates in the 1961 Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents. Obtaining an apostille is the responsibility of the document custodian, not the notary.

Attest: to bear witness to, to sign a document as a witness, or to affirm as true.

Attestation Clause: the statement a witness signs who is attesting the signature of a document as a witness.

Attested Copy: A copy of an original document that was made by the notary, or that the notary witnessed someone else make. Notaries in some states are allowed to make an attested copy of an original document if it is not a vital record (see below) or recordable document (see below). These states differentiate between an attested copy which may be made by a notary, and a certified copy which may be made only by the public official who has custody of the original record.

Attorney-in-Fact: the person authorized by a power of attorney to act on behalf of another.

Authentication: a process by which the designated office that issues authentication's for a state government (for example, the Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, etc. depending on the state) certifies the signature and official status of a notary public on a particular date. An "Apostille" or "Certificate of Authority" is attached to the notarized document, depending on the document's destination. (See the definition of Apostille for additional information.) Most commonly, authentications are requested for notarized documents that are bound for a foreign country. Obtaining an apostille or certificate of authority is the responsibility of the document custodian, not the notary.

Bill of Sale: a document that passes title of personal property.

Certification Authority (CA): a trusted party that issues computer-readable tokens, called digital certificates, that prove the identity of people using digital signatures to sign electronic documents. This is done by a certification company obtaining proof of identity similar to what notaries do when performing a notarial act. The CA then creates a digital certificate that is associated with that individual’s digital signature.

Certified Copy: a copy of a document or record, signed and certified as a true copy by the public official who has custody of the original record (for example, the local clerk of courts or state department of vital statistics). The term "certified copy" sometimes is used interchangeably with "attested copy" (see above), even though these are two different things.

Certify: to authenticate or attest as being true or as represented.

Civil Action: a lawsuit or legal action between two or more parties.

Codicil: a document that modifies the terms of a will.

Coerce, Coercion: to make someone feel they must do something (such as sign a document) when they do not want to do so.

Commission: the action of each state’s appointing authority to appoint someone as a notary public. The certificate issued by the appointing authority in each state to announce that appointment.

Conveyance: a document affecting or changing the title/ownership of real property.

Copy Certification: the process in which the notary takes an affidavit from the document custodian stating that the document to which the affidavit is attached is a true and complete copy of a document that is neither a vital record (see below) or publicly recordable document (see Recordable Document below).

Credible Witness (allowed in many, but not all, states): Where allowed, a credible witness provides a way to positively identify a signer who lacks satisfactory identification documents. The credible witness must be able to truthfully swear an oath/affirmation that: he/she personally knows the signer; the signer has no other form of acceptable identification; such identification would be difficult or impossible for the signer to obtain; and the credible witness has no connection to the underlying transaction. If one credible witness is used, he/she must be personally known to both the notary and the signer. If two credible witnesses are used, they must personally know the signer and be able to present the notary with positive identification. (State statutes differ on allowing use or one or two credible witnesses – see State Information.)

Custodian of the Document: the person who has charge or custody of the document. In the case of making an attested photocopy, the “document’s custodian” is the person presenting the document, who may or may not be the document signer or a party named in the document.

Deed: a document by which a person conveys (transfers) real property.
• Quitclaim Deed: a deed intended to pass any title, interest, or claim which the grantor may have in the real property, but not professing that such title is valid or containing any warranty for title.
• Warranty Deed: a deed in which the grantor warrants or guarantees good clear title to the real property.

Deponent: the person giving sworn testimony in a deposition.

Deposition: the testimony of a witness, under oath or affirmation, taken outside of court in which lawyers ask oral questions of the deponent. The testimony is usually reduced to writing and duly authenticated and is intended to be used in a trial of a civil action or a criminal prosecution.

Digital Signature: a specific type of electronic signature used to denote encryption technology. It is a process that provides for a secure signature on an electronic document, one that can prove the signature belongs to the person who signed it, and that can be associated with the document in such a way that any modifications to the document invalidate the signature.

Document Custodian: the person who has charge or custody of the document. In the case of making an attested copy, the document custodian is the person presenting the document, who may or may not be the document signer or a party named in the document.

Electronic Notarization: the process of performing a notarial act according to the applicable states laws on an electronic document, rather than a paper document.

Electronic Signature: any electronic character, symbol, letter, sound, or process that has been attached to or logically associated with an electronic record, and executed or adopted by a person with the intent that it shall be his signature.

Escrow: putting documents, property, or funds in the hands of an independent third party.

Execute a Document: to perform all formalities necessary to make a document fully effective. This is often a matter of just signing, but may also require a notarial act, delivery, or other element.

Executor: a person in charge of carrying out the provisions of a will.

Free Act and Deed: sometimes found in acknowledgment notarial certificates (see 
Acknowledgment Certificate above) to indicate that the signer was not coerced (see Coerce, Coercion above) into signing the document.

Grantee: a person (usually the buyer) who receives the deed of real property from the grantor.

Grantor: a person (usually the seller) who transfers a deed of real property to the grantee.

Guardian: a person in charge or a minor and/or their property.

Identification Document: in the event a notary does not personally know (see Personally Known below) the signer, the notary may accept an identification document that is deemed acceptable by the state notary law.

Instrument: this may be a written document, or an electronic document. As used in notarial law and practice, an instrument is a document that requires a signature and a notarial act to be fully executed.

Jurat: the written notarial certificate found on an affidavit, application or other document, indicating that the signer swore or affirmed to the notary under penalty of perjury that the information in the document is the truth. It also certifies that the signer signed the document in the presence of the notary on the date indicated in the jurat.

L.S. (locus sigilli): “the location where the seal is placed” in Latin.

Lien: a legal right or security attached to real estate or personal property until the payment of some debt, obligation, or duty.

Malfeasance: the doing of an act which a person should not do at all.

Misfeasance: the improper doing of an act which a person might do lawfully.

Mortgage on Real Property: a document creating a lien on a property.

Negligence: the failure to use such care as a reasonably prudent and careful person would use under similar circumstances.

Notarial Act: an official act that a notary public is authorized to perform by statute. 

Notarial Certificate: a written statement signed and sealed by the notary public certifying the facts of the notarial act performed immediately prior to filling out the notarial certificate.

Oath: any form of attestation or pledge by which a person signifies that he/she is bound in conscience and out of a sense of responsibility to a Supreme Being to the truthfulness of some statement. Willingly swearing to untrue statements constitutes perjury.

Original Document: for purposes of performing a notarial act (over a paper document), an original document is one that contains the signer’s wet-ink signature (see Original Signature) or that will be signed by the signer in the presence of the notary. An original electronic document is that to which the signer has affixed his/her electronic signature.

Original Signature: a signature subscribed (signed) directly onto the (paper) document in ink (wet-ink) by the person who is named on the document. In contrast, a faxed document that already displays a signature does not display an original signature, since the signature on the faxed document is a facsimile. An original electronic signature is an electronic sound, symbol or process that is affixed to an electronic document by the signer, with the intent of executing the document.

Perjury: making a false statement under oath or affirmation. Perjury is a crime punishable by a fine and/or prison term.

Personally Known: refers to knowing a person for a period of time and under circumstances which leave you no doubt as to that person’s true identity.

Power of Attorney (POA): a document authorizing a person to act as another’s agent or representative. (see Attorney-in-Fact above and Principal below)

Principal: the person who signs the power of attorney to allow the attorney-in-fact to have certain powers to act on behalf of the principal.

Proof: a declaration made by a subscribing witness usually stating that he/she witnessed the signature of the signer of the document.

Protest: a formal declaration made by a notary declaring a default in payment on a promissory note.

Reasonable Care: the degree of care which a person of ordinary prudence and intelligence would exercise in the same circumstances. Failure to exercise such care is negligence.

Recordable Document: a document that the recording authority (clerk of the county court, for example) is authorized to record, usually by state statute. Certified copies of a recordable document may not be made by a notary public. A certified copy of a recordable document must be obtained from the recording authority.

Representative Capacity: having the authority to act for and on behalf of a person, corporation, partnership, trust, or other entity as:
• An authorized officer, agent, or partner;
• A public officer, personal representative, or guardian;
• An attorney-in-fact for a principal;
• An authorized representative or in any other capacity recited in the instrument.

S.S. (scilicet): “to wit, namely” in Latin. Archaic term generally used to indicate the exact location of the performance of a notarial act. “S.S.” is usually found near the venue (see below) on a notarial certificate.

Statute: a law established by legislation.

Statute of Limitations: a law that sets a time limit on initiating criminal prosecution or a civil action.

Subpoena: a writ that compels a person to testify in a proceeding.

Subscribe: to place one’s signature on a document, either as the signer of the document or as a witness to the signer’s signature.

Swear: to take an oath.

Testator: the person making a will.

Venue: the location where the notarial act takes place, usually stated in the following format at the beginning of the notarial certificate:
State of _________
County of ________

Vital Record: an original document held by a state agency (or sometimes also held by the county of record) having to do with the birth, marriage, divorce, or death of an individual. Some states will include adoption documents and codicils made to correct mistakes on an original record as vital records. A certified copy of a vital record must be obtained from the agency that holds the original vital record. A notary may not certify a copy of a vital record.

Will: an instrument by which a person makes a disposition of his or her property to take effect after his or her death.

Witness: to observe the execution of, as that of an instrument, or to sign one’s name to an instrument, to authenticate it (attest it). 

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