The story of notaries has so far had a negative reception in our public due to the high rates at which they charge for their services, and experienced maritime employees draw attention to a new aspect of the Law on Notaries which, they claim, has the function of a business barrier, specifically in the part that concerns international sales contracts.
"I am surprised by the Law on Notaries, which in many elements is more restrictive than the law of the SFRY in the sphere of certification of international contracts", said Milan Kalezić, an expert in the field of foreign trade in maritime affairs, who has been engaged in this field for more than 30 years both in the country and abroad. abroad.
The "Vijesti" interlocutor, who for years participated in the preparation of the signing of sales contracts for ships of domestic and foreign companies, points out that "certain provisions of the Law on Notaries go directly against the nautical business, and that they not only drive away clients, but also money from certification could go to the budget".
"'Prekookeanska plovidba' and 'Jugooceanija' certified in our courts purchase and sale contracts for ships, which were in English, in accordance with the 'De la Haye' convention, dated October 1961, XNUMX, to which Yugoslavia was also a signatory. It was not in dispute that the contract was in a foreign language, because it was an international form of contract, and only the signature was certified in court, not the contract itself," Kalezić said.
Notary business-barrier
He added that "what we have now is a business barrier".
The maritime world requires strict forms of sales contracts - 'Bill of sale' and 'Memorandum of agreement', which are made in standardized Norwegian, American and English forms.
Those contracts, he said, are reconciled by the brokers of the buyer and the seller, and are generally signed by the buyer and the seller, while the "Bill of sale" is signed only by the seller in the presence of a notary, who verifies the certification of the signature and not the content of the contract.
"Our law, on the other hand, stipulates that a notary drafts a contract. "Also, the provisions of the Law on the Use of Languages greatly complicate the conclusion of an international contract for the purchase and sale of a yacht under a foreign flag, because it now requires the notary to be also a court interpreter, in this particular case for the English language," concluded Kalezić.
It was not respected before
Kalezić said that according to Article 63 of the Law, "it would turn out that the notary has the obligation to certify the signature on the international form of the contract for the English language, but in the last three or four years in Montenegro this was not respected even according to the previous legislation".
"The basic courts refused to certify it. "The provisions of the law also indicate that in the case of such contracts, translation by another authorized court translator is not accepted," concluded Kalezić.
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