INTERIM REGULATIONS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA CONCERNINGNOTARIZATION
Important Notice: (注意事项)
英文本源自中华人民共和国务院法制局编译, 中国法制出版社出版的《中华人民
共和国涉外法规汇编》(1991年7月版).
当发生歧意时, 应以法律法规颁布单位发布的中文原文为准.
This English document is coming from "LAWS AND REGULATIONS OF THE
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA GOVERNING FOREIGN-RELATED MATTERS" (1991.7)
which is compiled by the Brueau of Legislative Affairs of the State
Council of the People's Republic of China, and is published by the China
Legal System Publishing House.
In case of discrepancy, the original version in Chinese shall prevail.
Whole Document (法规全文)
INTERIM REGULATIONS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA CONCERNING
NOTARIZATION
(Promulgated by the State Council on April 13, 1982)
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1
These Regulations are formulated to strengthen and perfect the statenotarial system, to uphold the socialist legal system, to prevent disputesand to reduce the number of lawsuit cases.
Article 2
Notarization means that the state notarial department, upon application ofany party concerned, gives testimonial, according to law, to theauthenticity and legality of legal actions, legal documents and legalfacts, so as to safeguard public properties, and to safeguard citizens'status, and property rights as well as their lawful interests.
Article 3
The notary office is the state notarial department. The notary officeshould, through its notarial activities, educate citizens in abiding bythe law and upholding the socialist legal system.
Chapter II Scope of Business of Notary Office
Article 4
The notary office shall handle the following items of business:
(1) to give a testimonial to contracts (legal deeds), powers of attorney,
wills;
(2) to give a testimonial to right of inheritance;
(3) to give a testimonial to donation of property and to partition of
property;
(4) to give a testimonial to the relationship of adoption;
(5) to give a testimonial to family relationship;
(6) to give a testimonial to identity (status), record of education, and
personal experience;
(7) to give a testimonial to a person's birth, marital status, existence
and death;
(8) to give a testimonial to the authenticity of signatures and seals on
documents;
(9) to give a testimonial to the conformity of duplicates, abridged
versions, translations, and photo-offset copies to the original;
(10) to give a testimonial to the effect of compulsory execution of
documents concerning the claim for repayments of debt and articles in the
event that such documents are considered to be unequivocal;
(11) to be responsible for the preservation of evidence;
(12) to be responsible for the safekeeping of wills or other documents;
(13) to draft, on behalf of the party concerned, a document of application
for a notarial deed;
(14) to handle other notarial affairs in accordance with the application
of the party concerned and international practice.
Chapter III Organization and Leadership of Notary Office
Article 5
The notary office shall be set up in municipalities directly under the
Central Government, counties (or autonomous counties, and the same below),
and municipalities. With the approval of the judicial administrative
authorities of the province, autonomous region and municipality directly
under the Central Government, a municipal district may also set up the
notary office.
Article 6
The notary office shall be under the leadership of the judicial
administrative authorities. The subordinative relationship does not exist
between notary offices.
Article 7
The notary office shall have positions of notary and assistant notary.
When necessary, it may have positions of director and deputy director.
The positions of director and deputy director shall be assumed by
notaries. The director and deputy director shall direct the work of the
notary office, and must also execute the duties of notaries.
Directors, deputy directors, notaries, and assistant notaries shall be
appointed and removed respectively by the relevant people's government of
the municipality directly under the Central Government, of the county, or
of the municipality in accordance with the relevant provisions of the
administration of cadres.
Article 8
Any citizen who has the right to elect and stands for elections and who
meet one of the following qualifications may be appointed as a notary:
(1) graduates of law specialty of institutions of higher learning who have
passed the probation, and have engaged in judicial work, teaching of law,or research in law for 1 year or more;
(2) those who have served in a people's court or a people's procuratorate
as judges or procurators;
(3) those who have engaged in judicial work in the judicial administrativedepartment for 2 years or more, or who have worked in other statedepartments, public organizations, or enterprises and institutions for 5
years or more, and have the knowledge in law comparable to that ofgraduates from secondary law schools;
(4) those who have served as assistant notaries for 2 years or more.
Article 9
Graduates from law schools at the secondary and higher levels who havepassed the probation, and government functionaries with the equivalentrecord of education, may be appointed as assistant notaries.
Chapter IV Jurisdiction
Article 10
Notarial affairs shall be under the jurisdiction of the notary office at
the locality where the applicant has his/her residence registration, or
where legal actions or legal facts have occurred.
Article 11
Notarial affairs concerning transfer of properties shall be under the
jurisdiction of the notary office at the locality where the applicant has
his/her residence registration, or where principal properties are located.
Article 12
In the event that a number of persons concerned, who apply for the
handling of the same notarial affair, have their residence registration at
different localities that do not come under the jurisdiction of one and
the same notary office, or the properties are scattered in several areas
that come under the jurisdiction of different notary offices, these
persons concerned may, through consultation, make their applications to
any of those notary offices. In the event that the persons concerned fail
to reach an agreement, the different notary offices concerned shall
coordinate in jurisdiction out of consideration for the convenience of the
persons concerned.
Article 13
In the event that jurisdictional disputes arise among various notary
offices, their common superior - the judicial administrative authorities
at a higher level shall designate the jurisdiction.
Article 14
The Ministry of Justice and the judicial departments of various provinces,
autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central
Government shall have the authority to assign a certain notary office to
handle a particular notarial affair.
Article 15
The embassy or consulate of China in a foreign country may handle notarial
affairs at the request of a Chinese citizen residing in the foreign
country where there is Chinese embassy or consulate.
Chapter V Procedures for the Handling of Notarial Affairs
Article 16
In applying for notarization, a party concerned shall go to the notary
office personally to make an application in writing or verbally. If the
application affair is entrusted to an agent, certifying documents of the
power of attorney shall be presented. However, the application affair
shall not be entrusted to an agent if the party concerned applies to the
notary office for a testimonial concerning a power of attorney, a
statement, adoption of children, a will, or signatures and seals; if the
party concerned has true difficulty in making the application, the notary
may go to the locality where the party concerned resides, to handle the
notarial affairs.
In the event that state organs, public organizations, enterprises and
institutions apply for notarization, they shall send their representatives
to the notary office. The representatives shall present their certifying
documents of the power of representation.
Article 17
Notaries shall not handle notarial affairs which they themselves or their
spouses, or which the near relatives of themselves or their spouses apply
for; in addition, they shall not handle notarial affairs that they
themselves or their spouses have interests in. The parties concerned shall
have the right to apply for the withdrawal of any of the notaries.
Article 18
The notaries must examine the status of the parties concerned and their
ability to exercise rights and to perform obligations; and must examine
the authenticity and legality of the facts, documents and other relevant
documents, with regard to all of which the persons concerned are applying
for a testimonial.
Article 19
In the event that the notary office holds that the evidence provided by
the persons concerned is not complete or is doubtful, it has the right to
notify the persons concerned that they make necessary additions to
complete the evidence, or it may consult the departments or individuals
concerned and ask them to provide certifying documents and materials. The
departments and individuals concerned shall have the obligation to render
assistance.
Article 20
Notaries shall prepare notarial documents in accordance with the format
prescribed or approved by the Ministry of Justice.
Article 21
After notarial documents have been processed, an additional copy of the
documents shall be kept on file. In accordance with the needs of the
persons concerned, duplicates may be prepared, which shall be issued to
the persons concerned together with the original documents.
Article 22
The notary office shall collect service charges for handling notarial
affairs. The measures for collecting notarial service charges shall be
formulated by the Ministry of Justice separately.
Article 23
The notarial affairs, as handled by the notary office, shall be kept
confidential by the notaries.
Article 24
If one party concerned refuses to act in accordance with the stipulations
of the document concerning creditor's rights which has been rendered
compulsory by the notary office in accordance with the stipulations of
Item 10, Article 4, the other party concerned may apply to a basic
people's court which has jurisdiction for execution.
Article 25
The notary office shall refuse to give a testimonial to false or illegal
statements and documents. When the notary office refuses to accept an
application of the party concerned for notarization, it shall explain,
verbally or in writing, to the party concerned the reason why his/her
application is rejected, and explain also the procedure for making an
appeal if the applicant is not satisfied with the rejection. In the event
that the party concerned is not satisfied with the rejection made by the
notary office, or thinks that the notary has handled the notarial affair
improperly, he/she may make an appeal to the municipal or county judicial
administrative department at the locality where the notary office is
located or to the judicial administrative department at a higher level,
and the department that accepts the appeal shall make a decision.
Article 26
The notary office, or the judicial administrative department at the same
level, or the judicial administrative department at a higher level, shall
rescind a notarial document which has already been issued, if they
discover that there are improper points or mistakes in it.
Article 27
In the event that notarial documents, processed in accordance with the
application made by the party concerned, are to be sent to a foreign
country for use, these notarial documents, apart from being processed in
accordance with the procedures as prescribed in this chapter, shall be
sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or to the foreign affairs office
of the province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the
Central Government, and also to the said foreign country's embassy or
consulate in China for confirmation. However, the aforesaid stipulations
shall not apply to such cases where a foreign country in which the
notarial documents are to be used prescribes otherwise in its relevant
provisions, or where an agreement has been signed between China and the
said foreign country on exempting the aforesaid confirmation of notarial
documents.
Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions
Article 28
These Regulations shall apply to foreign citizens residing in China.
Article 29
The right to interpret these Regulations shall reside in the Ministry of
Justice.
Article 30
These Regulations shall go into effect as of the date of promulgation.