Refusal to perform a notarial act, the psychiatrization of law, as well as the cognitive and emotional determinants of legal incapacity, were only some of the issues discussed during the 1st Notarial Forum entitled “Legal Capacity: Parties to Notarial Acts in the Face of Contemporary Challenges.” The event, held on 13 April this year, was hosted by the Institute of Legal Sciences at the University of Zielona Góra.
The Monday scientific conference provided an excellent opportunity for the notarial and legal community to exchange knowledge and professional experience.
“We addressed the problems encountered in the everyday work of notaries, who are often required to confront various uncertainties. Among other responsibilities, a notary must assess an individual’s legal capacity, examining whether a party is capable of performing legal acts. In practice, notaries carry out a wide range of activities extending far beyond inheritance proceedings. Their competencies also include sales agreements, real estate transactions, marital property separation agreements, donations, company law matters, and the preparation of various types of official records. Such a broad scope of responsibilities necessitates the clarification and standardization of professional practice. We believe that meetings of this kind contribute to greater consistency in this field,” explained Dr. hab. Rafał Wrzecionek, Professor at the University of Zielona Góra and Deputy Director of the Institute of Legal Sciences.
The 1st Notarial Forum, “Legal Capacity: Parties to Notarial Acts in the Face of Contemporary Challenges,” was organized through cooperation between the University of Zielona Góra and the Polish Society of Forensic Psychiatry. The psychiatrization of law constitutes one of the key challenges in notarial practice.
“This concerns the incorporation of certain elements of psychiatry into legal practice and the imposition on legal professionals of the obligation to assess the legal capacity of parties involved in notarial acts. We are referring to an individual’s ability to make decisions and submit declarations of intent that are legally effective under the applicable regulations. We hope that our conference will contribute, at least partially, to clarifying the doubts and uncertainties encountered in everyday professional practice,” added Dr. Piotr Zielonka from the Institute of Legal Sciences at the University of Zielona Góra.
The organizers have already announced that the 1st Notarial Forum, “Legal Capacity: Parties to Notarial Acts in the Face of Contemporary Challenges,” is intended to become a recurring event.
