The Evolution of the Public Notary Institute in Serbia: Historical and Legal Analysis of the Laws of 1930 and 2011

Marko Stankovic; Danijela Kovačević; Milica Stanković

doi:10.51738/kpolisa.2026.2r.msdkms

Authors

Marko Stankovic University Business Academy, Novi Sad, Serbia Faculty of Law for Commerce and Judiciary
Danijela Kovačević University Business Academy, Novi Sad, Serbia Faculty of Law for Commerce and Judiciary
Milica Stanković University Business Academy, Novi Sad, Serbia Faculty of Law for Commerce and Judiciary

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51738/kpolisa.2026.2r.msdkms

Keywords:

evolution of public notary, court certification, solemnization, notary documents, legal certainty

Abstract

The Institute of Public Notary in the Republic of Serbia has existed for 15 years, and the Law on Public
Notaries has been in active use since September 1, 2014. year. Notaries continue to attract attention in
terms of their activities, types of notarial documents, as well as one of their most important activities, which
is the solemnization of non-public documents. The institute's justification in terms of legal security during
the solemnization of non-public documents and with the aim of obtaining guarantees that the courts could
not give in the period from 1945 to 2011, and which were most often manifested through uncertainty during
certification or double sale of real estate, etc., still causes the greatest attention. In the paper, the authors
will analyze the evolution of the current Law on Public Notaries from 2011 in relation to the previous Law
on Public Notaries from 1930 from a historical-legal context regarding the personality of the public notary,
activities, notarial documents, as well as the justification of today's institute in relation to the original public
notaries, with special reference to the period of non-existence of public notaries.

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