Public Notaries as Members of Bodies of Legal Persons Performing Commercial Activities

Odredbom čl. 13. st. 1. t. 7. Zakona o javnom bilježništvu propisano je da za javnog bilježnika može biti imenovana samo ona osoba koja se obvezala da će, ako bude imenovana za javnog bilježnika, napustiti drugu naplatnu službu ili kakvo drugo naplatno zaposlenje, ili članstvo u tijelu pravne osobe koja obavlja kakvu gospodarsku djelatnost. Spomenuto ograničenje spominje se i u odredbi čl. 39. st. 2., i to u smislu izričite zabrane obavljanja druge službe ili zaposlenja. U radu se posebno analizira sintagma koja se odnosi na članstvo javnih bilježnika u “tijelima” pravnih osoba koje obavljaju gospodarsku djelatnost. Kritika je pritom usmjerena i na njezinu terminološku neprihvatljivost, i na učinke koji se zbog načelne nedorečenosti samih zakonskih odredaba u praksi mogu pokazati problematičnima.According to the Notaries Public Act, while performing public notary services, a notary is not permitted to be a member of a body of a legal person performing a commercial activity. Being primarily a reflection of the independence and impartiality principles, this rule is particularly important for the overall functioning of public notaries. Consequently, the said prohibition is analysed from the perspective of public trust attributed to the public notary service. The analysis takes into account numerous terminological inconsistencies within the Notaries Public Act, justifying the need for a teleological interpretation of the relevant legal provisions. In addition, the paper makes a distinction between the legal persons that perform commercial activities and have bodies (in public limited and limited liability companies those bodies are the General Meeting, Management Board and Supervisory Board), and the legal persons that also perform commercial activities but do not have bodies (typically, those will be unlimited partnership and limited partnership). Although a grammatical interpretation of the Notaries Public Act would indicate that the above mentioned prohibition does not apply to the latter category, it is suggested that such an interpretation should not be adopted. The analysis therefore takes a functional approach, showing that a public notary\u27s affiliation with a so-called personal company can also, depending on the circumstances, bring into question the level of public trust associated with the public notary service