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Chapter Law Content

Title: The Notary Act CH
Category: Judicial Yuan(司法院)
Chapter 6: The Notary Associations
Article 130
The purposes of the Notary Associations are to promote the development of theory and practice of notarization, and to establish standards of ethics, as well as to further the common interests of the civil notaries, and to conduct learning, instruction, monitoring and disposal of other commonly related issues.
Article 131
The Notary Associations are juridical persons. .
Article 132
The Notary Associations shall be organized by civil notaries.
Except for attorney notaries, all civil notaries shall join the notary association. Memberships in the Notary Associations are a right for all duly licensed civil notaries.
Court notaries and attorney notaries may join District Notary Associations in the jurisdiction of the district court where they are registered as sustaining members.
Article 133
The Notary Associations are comprised of the District Notary Associations and the National Confederated Notary Associations.
When there are 9 or more civil notaries registered with any district court or its subdivisions registered with the same High Court or the High Court’s branches, the notaries so registered are required to form a District Notary Association within the jurisdiction of the High Court or its branch. When there are fewer than 9 civil notaries, those notaries shall join the District Notary Association in the jurisdiction of the High Court or branch closest to them, or form a Multi-Jurisdiction District Notary Association in operation with civil notaries from a contiguous District.
The National Confederated Notary Association shall be initiated by a proposal raised by no less than 3 District Notary Associations, and agreed to by more than half of all District Notary Associations. The National Notary Association headquarters shall be located in the capital of the R.O.C.
All District Notary Associations shall join the National Confederated Notary Associations as members.
There shall be only one notary association organized within a single national or district jurisdiction.
Article 134
Notary Associations shall charter directors and supervisors. Meetings of the members of the Notary Associations shall elect both the directors and supervisors.
1. For a District Notary Association, there shall be between 3 and 11 directors and between 1 and 3 Supervisors;
2. For the National Confederated Notary Association, there shall be between 5 and 17 directors and between 1 and 5 supervisors.
The number of directors stipulated in the preceding paragraph shall not exceed half of its membership; the number of supervisors shall not exceed one-third of the number of directors.
The Notary Associations may elect alternate directors and supervisors. The number of alternate directors and supervisors shall not exceed one third of the number of directors and supervisors.
If there are more than three directors or supervisors, they may nominate managing directors or supervisors from among themselves separately. The number of managing directors and managing supervisors shall not exceed one third of the seats of the association’s directors or supervisors. One of the managing directors shall be elected as board chairman by the entire director membership. In the case that an association has no managing directors, the board of directors shall elect a chairman of the board from among the entire director membership.
The terms of office of directors or supervisors shall be three years, but they are eligible for re-election. The chairman of the board of directors shall only be re-elected once.
Article 135
The National Confederated Notary Association shall consist of all District Notary Associations. Each District Notary Association shall select representatives to attend the representative meetings of the National Confederated Notary Association, and exercise the rights of the member associations. The number of representatives sent by each District Notary Association shall be stipulated in the charter of the National Confederated Notary Association. The ratio of the number of representatives of each District Notary Association within all associations shall be relative to the number of members of each association.
Article 136
District Notary Associations shall enact their charters, and report to the High Courts or its branches where the association is located to approve the charter. The High Court or its branches shall transfer the report to competent local social administrative authorities for filing after approving the charter. The same procedure shall be followed when they amend their charter.
The National Confederated Notary Association shall enact its charter, and report the charter to the Judicial Yuan for approval . It shall file its charter with competent central administrative authorities. The same procedure shall be followed when the National Confederated Notary Association amends its charter.
Article 137
Charters of District Notary Associations shall specifies the following entries :
1. The name and the site of the association;
2. The district where it registered;
3. The organization of the association;
4. Rules for admission and withdrawal/forfeit of membership;
5. Rights and obligations of its members;
6. The number of directors’ and supervisors’ seats; also their duties, authorities, terms and process of election; and dismissal of directors and supervisors;
7. The procedure for convening meetings of members, meetings of directors, and meetings of supervisors; also the method of adopting resolutions of previous meetings;
8. Expenditure and accounting;
9. The procedure for amending its charter; and
10. Other clauses necessary for the functioning of the District Notary Association.
The charters mentioned in the preceding paragraph may also specify the establishment and usage of a mutual assistance fund for the notaries.
Article 138
The general members' meeting of each District Notary Association shall be convened at least once each year. The meeting shall be convened by the chairman of the board of directors. If the chairman of the board of directors fails to convene the meeting, each supervisor may convene the general members’ meeting.
If one fifth of the association's membership specifies a purpose and reasons, then requests to convene a members' meeting, the chairman of the board of directors shall convene it.
If the board of directors fails to convene a members’ meeting within one month after the filing of the request under the preceding paragraph, the proposing members may, after obtaining an approval from the court, convene a members’ meeting on their own.
Except as otherwise formulated in the charter, a notice to convene a members’ meeting shall be given to each member no later than 30 days prior to the scheduled meeting date.
The cause(s) or subject(s) of a members’ meeting to be convened shall be specified in the notice to be given to members.
Article 139
The competent authority of District Notary Associations shall be local social administrative agencies. Nevertheless, the related business of a District Notary Association shall be guided and supervised by the High Court or its branches to which the National Confederated Notary Association is registered.
The competent authority of the National Confederated Notary Association shall be the central social administrative agency. Nevertheless, the related business of the National Confederated Notary Association shall be guided and supervised by the Judicial Yuan.
Article 140
Prior notice of District Notary Associations’ meetings shall be made to the competent local social administrative authorities, and to the High Court or its branches to which the District Notary Association is registered.
Prior notice of the National Confederated Notary Association’s meetings shall be made to the competent central administrative authority and to the Judicial Yuan.
Representatives from agencies having lawful regulatory authority over District Notary Associations and the National Confederated Notary Association may be present at meetings mentioned in the prior two paragraphs.
Article 141
District Notary Associations shall report the following matters to the competent local social administrative authorities and to the High Court or its branches to which the District Notary Association is registered:
1. Complete membership rolls, including the admission of new members and withdrawal of members;
2. Results of directors’ and supervisors’ board elections including names of all board members;
3. Dates, places and minutes of proceedings of all official meetings, including General Meetings, Executive Board Meetings, and Supervisor Board Meetings;
4. The contents of motions and resolutions.
The High Court or its branches to which the District Notary Association is registered shall forward the reports to the Judicial Yuan for future reference upon receipt of such reports..
Article 142
The National Confederated Notary Association shall set forth the Ethical Rules of Civil Notaries for approval at its General Members Meeting. Upon passage, the Ethical Rules of Civil Notaries shall be forwarded to the Judicial Yuan for future reference. The same procedure shall be followed when the National Confederated Notary Association amends the Ethical Rules of Civil Notaries.
Article 143
A resolution of the general members’ meeting of a District Notary Association requires the attendance of more than one half of the members, and the consent of more than one half of the attendees. However, the following matters may be resolved only with the consent of not less than two-thirds of the attendees:
1. Enactment of and amendment to the charter.
2. Recall of a director, supervisor or a member’s representative of a District Notary Association in the National Confederated Notary Association.
3. Disposal of properties.
4. Other important matters related to the rights and obligations of the members.
Article 144
Where a Notary Association has acted or reached resolutions in violation of a statute or its charter, the Judicial Yuan or competent social administrative agencies may impose the following sanctions:
1. Warning;
2. Revocation of the resolution at issue; or
3. Intervention.
Sanctions of “warning” or “revocation of the resolution at issue” are also enforceable over the District Notary Associations by the High Courts or its branches to which they are registered.
Article 145
The District Notary Associations shall maintain malpractice liability insurance coverage for their civil notary members, in order to ensure that victims can acquire compensation from the malpractice liabilities of civil notaries which are not covered by the civil notaries’ own mandatory malpractice liability insurance. Aforementioned mandatory malpractice liability insurance is stipulated in Article 67 of this Act.
The Judicial Yuan shall issue an order to determine the individual minimum amount of insurance coverage for each insured risk of the Association’s members in the insurance contract stipulated in the preceding paragraph according to the situation’s needs. However, the insurer may limit the amount of total insurance compensation for the Association’s members to no more than four times as much as the determined minimum coverage for the given insurance year.
Article 146
Article 137, Article 138, paragraph 1 of Article 141, and Article 143 shall apply mutatis mutandis to the National Confederated Notary Association.