"A uniform national law on notarization should define the profession's nature, functions and business scope and responsibilities of notaries," said Ma Yu'e, of the China Notaries' Association.

China's current regulation on notarization was announced 20 years ago when notarization, like the lawyer's profession, had just emerged out of the destruction of the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976) and started its recovery.

According to Ma, now that notaries have re-established themselves as the intermediaries instead of their past role as "civil servants," the 1982 regulation is redundant.

"The notarization system has undergone great changes in China since the early 1980s," said Huang Anjiang, with the Beijing-based Chang'an Notary Office. "With the increasing market demand due to the improved awareness of laws among the public, it has become a pressing task for the law to come out at an early date."

Increasingly more Chinese now resort to notarization as a way to prevent possible disputes, such as notarizations of ante-marital properties and notarizations before surgery. Statistics from the Ministry of Justice indicate that the nation's approximately 10,000 notaries provide more than 10 million notarizations annually, most of which are in the economic and civil fields.

"Many laws have already included clauses on notarization in their respective fields, and, in practice, notarizations are also required in many situations," said Jiang Wei, a law professor at the Renmin University of China. "And we are bound to see more similar clauses in laws. These have provided the basis for a law on notarization."

China's Adoption Law, for example, states foreign adoptive parents who ask for notarization for the adoption should go to notary offices that have been recognized by the judicial administrative departments under the State Council as qualified for handling overseas business.

Suggestions for the legislature's efforts on the notarization system have been submitted to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top law-making body, in the form of motions from its deputies.

Sources with the NPC said the body has already included a new law on notarization in its current legislation plan, which will come to fruition in March next year. Now with the relevant parties working on the draft of the national law, the NPC has pledged it will work for its early promulgation.

Despite the absence of a national law, 19 provinces and cities - including economically advanced Shanghai and Shenzhen, a coastal city in South China's Guangdong Province - already have their own local regulations concerning notarization.

According to Ma, these local regulations stipulate the nature, duties, obligations and business scope of the notaries.

They also stipulate some situations where notarizations are a must, such as in the cases of the transfer of real estate.

(China Daily February 25, 2002)