As we enter 2026, following the French presidency of the International Union of Notaries, communication on the CSN’s international activities is being reintegrated into the institution’s usual communication channels. The adventure of La Lettre i, the electronic newsletter dedicated to the CSN’s international action which was launched 11 years ago, is coming to an end today. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to all our readers for their loyalty and continued interest over the years. The CSN’s international activities will continue and remain visible on the CSN’s social media channels and through news published on the profession’s websites.
Bertrand Savouré,
President of the Superior Council of Notaries (CSN)
Sommaire
Cooperation agreement - Moldova
Supporting modernisation of the Moldovan notariat
In order to strengthen the ties initiated in 2022, the Superior Council of Notaries (CSN) and the Chamber of Notaries of Moldova signed a cooperation agreement on 27 October 2025 in Paris, in the presence of their respective presidents, Bertrand Savouré and Aliona Teleuca. This committed the Notaries of France to providing their expertise in
three priority areas: digitalisation, the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and mediation and the notariat’s contribution to dejudicialisation.
As part of its application for accession to the European Union, Moldova is keen to develop and modernise its notariat. Training actions and conferences will therefore be organised from 2026.
Conference - United States
French expertise highlighted during “Legal Week” in Washington
Highly anticipated by legal professionals and academics from around the world, Law, Justice & Development Week was once again held in Washington from 3 to 6 November 2025, having been suspended for three years following the health crisis. Organised by the World Bank, this event raises economists’ awareness of legal issues.
The large French delegation – including representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the French Development Agency, Expertise France, the Paris Bar and the Superior Council of Notaries (CSN) – comprised more than 25 people in total. Under the impetus of the World Bank’s new Vice-President for Legal Affairs, French professionals were therefore able to highlight the strengths of the continental legal system. The First President of the Court of Cassation, Christophe Soulard, for instance, spoke during a round-table discussion devoted to legal protection of the environment. The International Union of Notaries (UINL), which is still under French presidency, meanwhile organised a meeting dedicated to digital innovation in support of preventive justice, the securing of property rights and access to justice. Finally, the French Embassy in Washington provided significant support by organising a reception attended by more than 200 guests.
Cooperation - Albania
Albania seeks French expertise to develop its land registry
A delegation from Albania’s State Cadastre Agency (ASHK) was received by the Superior Council of Notaries (CSN) in Paris on 13 and 14 November 2025. The mission aimed to explain how the French land registry operates, from the notary issuing the deed through to amendment of the register, including publication of land registration. ASHK also visited the land title publication services and the Topography Department of the Directorate General of Public Finances, as well as the Caisse des Dépôts. The land registry agency hopes to draw inspiration from the French model to improve the Albanian land registry, where property records are incomplete and frequently inaccurate. These exchanges took place within the framework of the first cooperation agreement, signed between the CSN and the Chamber of Notaries of Albania on 27 January 2025, one of the main focuses of which is to support the introduction of a procedure for the digitisation of notarial deeds.
Cooperation mission - Comoros
New support actions in the Comoros
The ties between the Chamber of Notaries of the Comoros and the Superior Council of Notaries (CSN) are being strengthened. A delegation from the Chamber of Notaries of La Réunion once again travelled to the archipelago from 28 November to 3 December 2025, just two months after their previous visit. This mission provided an opportunity for the Notaries of France to work with their Comorian counterparts on the prospects linked to the recent adoption of the new notarial law and to lead a training session on co-ownership. At the same time, an audit mission relating to the land situation was carried out jointly with the Directorate General of Public Finances (DGFiP) and the Order of Chartered Surveyors (OGE). Numerous working meetings were organised with the various ministries concerned. The delegation also met with the Secretary General of the Government, Mr Nour El-Fath Azali, as well as the Ambassador of France to the Union of the Comoros, H.E. Étienne Chapon.
Notarial meetings - international
Meetings on access to the law for French nationals in China and the United States
Beijing, Shanghai and Washington hosted international notarial meetings organised with the support of the French Consulates in October and November.
These meetings with French notaries with expertise in international law are designed to provide a public service and promote access to the law by informing French nationals abroad of the legal consequences of their expatriation. Frédéric Varin in the United States and Coralie Foënard in China particularly highlighted the differences between French law and local legal systems. They answered the many questions raised by participants on issues relating, among other things, to matrimonial property regimes, divorces, successions and inheritance taxation. Two webinars were also organised, one with the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) on the theme of couples in an international context, and the other with lepetitjournal.com, to raise awareness among expatriates and respond to their questions.
For many years, the members of the French Nationals Abroad Unit, headed by Frédéric Varin, have travelled all over the world to meet French communities. This represents a strong commitment by the Notaries of France, which has now been formalised in a partnership agreement signed with the MEAE on 14 April 2025.
Live - France
“Our Union is a source of great strength, as it raises awareness of the notariat as an expanding model and one that is predominant worldwide.”
At the helm of the International Union of Notaries from 2023 to 2025, Lionel Galliez led a term of office marked by unity, international recognition and modernisation of the profession. In this interview, the Paris notary looks back on his term of office and discusses the major challenges facing the UINL.
What were the major achievements of your term of office?
The drafting and adoption of an International Notarial Code. Although non-binding, this text sets out a complete and fully operational notarial model serving citizens and public authorities. We adopted it at our extraordinary general assembly held last May in Dakar, so that it may become the reference framework for all notariats looking to strengthen themselves and improve their legislation, institutions and ecosystem. I am convinced it will have a long-term influence! Several Ministers of Justice, mainly in Africa and Asia, have already said that they intend to develop their notarial legislation drawing inspiration from this code.
“The notarial profession must rise to the challenge of simplification.”
What were the most significant challenges you faced during your term of office?
In relation to the International Notarial Code, the main challenge was to devise a formula capable of securing majority support, since the notariat across our Union’s 93 member countries is extremely diverse. We needed to strike a balance that would present a detailed notariat framework, in a concrete and comprehensive manner.
Another major challenge was to strengthen the ties between the UINL and international organisations such as the United Nations, the World Bank and many others. I believe that this mission has largely been accomplished, for example through the cooperation agreement signed with the World Bank, which ensures that notaries have a voice in the preparation of the B-READY report, which will replace Doing Business.
What lessons do you draw for the future of international notarial governance?
Above all, a lesson about the place of the notariat in the global legal landscape. Our Union is a source of great strength, as it raises awareness among its members and those we deal with of the notariat as an expanding model and one that is predominant worldwide. Too often, political decision-makers imagine that the notariat exists only in their own country and that it is something inherited from the past that needs to be overcome. This is not the case, and it is precisely this demonstration that the International Union of Notaries provides.
It is, of course, a profession that must rise to all the challenges presented by modernisation, digitalisation and the improvement of public services as well as the main challenge we now face – simplification. For many users and clients, the world in which we live has become too complex. If we wish to retain our place, we will have to ensure that our work and our mission become simpler and more accessible.
How do you see the role of the UINL evolving in the coming years?
As a continued expansion! This represents a particularly strong political argument to demonstrate to governments that don’t yet have a notarial system like ours how relevant the profession can be. I believe this will be the main mission of the new French President of the International Notarial Cooperation Commission, Thierry Vachon, who was formerly the Union’s Secretary General during my term of office.
Symposium - France
Reinventing ownership to make it sustainable: When the law adapts to the ecological emergency
As the climate emergency intensifies, ownership rights are now being fundamentally questioned. A symposium was held to address these issues at the Superior Council of Notaries (CSN), bringing together legal professionals, notaries and French and international experts to think collectively about a more sustainable form of ownership.
Reconciling ownership rights and the ecological transition
“The ecological transition is profoundly transforming our relationship with ownership,” explains Bruno Lasserre, President of the Foundation for Continental Law. “That is why this morning had a dual ambition: to open an in-depth debate on reconciling ownership rights with the climate emergency, while at the same time seeking to identify concrete operational solutions.”
Indeed, although this right has historically been presented as perpetual and inviolable, it is nevertheless subject to increasingly marked limitations. “Protection of the environment, the ultimate shared resource, calls for a rebalancing of interests,” says Bertrand Savouré, President of the CSN. “We need to reinvent a right of ownership capable of responding to environmental challenges.”
Legal creativity as a lever for action
This necessary reinvention involves “increased legal creativity, particularly in deeds and contractual structures,” according to Chantal Munger, Project Manager “Reinventing Montreal”, Real Estate Strategy Department – City of Montreal, who was also present in Paris to illustrate the convergence of issues across continents. For Robert Lewis-Lettington, Senior Adviser “Land, Housing and Human Rights”, UN-Habitat, “one of the symposium’s major strengths also lay in its comparative and international dimension, because dialogue must be fostered between legal traditions.”
He believes that the search for effective solutions requires a mutual understanding of civil law and common law systems, in order to build “multilateral responses adapted to national and local realities.” “This openness is very welcome,” continues Michèle Raunet, Member of the Scientific Council of the Foundation for Continental Law, “because the environment is an issue for all societies that live on our planet. We must therefore project ourselves into
a dynamic approach rather than a purely critical vision.”
A collective and interprofessional approach
Beyond differences in legal systems or professional practices, the symposium also highlighted a strong convergence of views. “This morning proves that the more professionals talk to one another, the more we will develop a 360-degree vision enabling us to respond accurately to the challenge of conveying information to the public,” concludes Marie Hélène Péro, Notary, President of the Congress of the Notaries of France 2024, dedicated to Sustainable Urban Planning.
Through these reflections and exchanges, the notarial profession therefore affirms its place at the heart of contemporary transformations, actively contributing to the construction of sustainable legal solutions serving the general interest.
watch the video of the event
The Event - Vietnam
Franco Vietnamese Week of Law and Justice: a unifying event
For the first Franco-Vietnamese Week of Law and Justice organised by the French Embassy in Vietnam, a large French delegation travelled to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City from 24 to 27 November 2025. Representatives of the various legal professions were particularly able to discuss two main topics with their counterparts – innovation in the legal professions and the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) – in order to jointly reflect on the modernisation of their legal systems. The cooperation programme between the two Ministries of Justice was also renewed.
Notaries, lawyers, judicial officers, judges, academics, representatives of the Ministry of Justice and of the Foundation for Continental Law – all areas of the legal profession responded to the invitation from Valérie Delnaud, Director of Civil Affairs and the Seal. The event also played host to two major conferences: “Law and Innovation” at the Hanoi Law University, at which Me Jean Déléage gave a talk on digitalisation of the French notariat, and “Law and AI” at the University of Economics and Law in Ho Chi Minh City, where Me Emmanuelle Crossoir presented the uses of AI in the profession and its outlook for the future.
Digital practices and notaries’ liability
The two delegates from the Superior Council of Notaries (CSN) also met with the Association of Notaries of Vietnam (ANV), to discuss their digital practices, but above all parties’ responsibility in terms of legal certainty. “The trust placed in the notariat by the public authorities requires professionals, in return, to take out mutual insurance, in order to enable them to deal with potential digital failures,” says Me Jean Déléage.
“I therefore particularly emphasised this point to my counterparts, to raise their awareness of this risk and of the need to protect against it.”
Francophonie
The Notaries of France also proposed that the ANV join the Association of Francophone Notariats (AFN), in order to develop exchanges in French in the face of the growing use of English among young Vietnamese notaries. Finally, the issue was discussed of creating a university centre, to replace the Franco-Vietnamese House of Law which closed in 2012. An inter-university structure, in partnership with the Foundation for Continental Law, could therefore be established to strengthen academic and professional links.
Strengthening cooperation
The final highlight of the week was the renewal of the Franco-Vietnamese biennial technical cooperation action plan for 2026-2027, which was signed between the Directorate of Civil Affairs and the Seal and the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice. It is in line with previous plans, implementing the administrative arrangements for legal cooperation agreed between the two Ministries of Justice in Hanoi in September 2016.
Expertise - Ukraine
French legal professionals at the forefront of accelerating Ukrainian judicial reforms
At the initiative of the French Ministry of Justice, from 17 to 19 November 2025 representatives of the legal professions took part in a mission to Ukraine organised by Expertise France. This visit was linked to the European Union (EU) Pravo-Justice Project, which aims to support reforms of the Ukrainian legal system and to combat corruption – essential prerequisites for its integration into the EU.
Launched in 2015, the Pravo-Justice project has just completed its third phase, focused on judicial cooperation. A fourth phase is expected to be
launched shortly, covering regulated professions. Three representatives of the Superior Council of Notaries (CSN), the National Bar Council and the National Chamber of Judicial Officers therefore travelled to Kyiv alongside the French Ministry of Justice, for a mission subject to tight security due to the ongoing war.
Digitalisation and the fight against money laundering
Bertrand Basseville, Europe Delegate of the CSN, met Volodymyr Marchenko, President of the Chamber of Notaries of Ukraine. They discussed in particular two key issues for Ukraine’s possible future integration into the EU – the digitalisation of the profession and the fight against money laundering. On the first point, the French representative noted a significant difference between citizens’ access to their computerised personal data and the digitalisation of notarial deeds, which is still in its infancy.
Moreover, while the Ukrainian notariat already appears to be highly digitalised for consulting and updating more than a dozen registers (personal, property and land registry data, etc.), “the profession is currently cautious about full digitalisation due to the risks of hacking and power outages, which are frequent at the moment,” notes Bertrand Basseville.
Progress is also needed with regard to the fight against money laundering. Although texts do exist, their application appears to be largely formal, with limited effectiveness in practice
Instructive exchanges
The mission also featured several meetings with judicial institutions. For instance the French delegation met with Liudmyla Suhak, Acting Minister of Justice, as well as with representatives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. These discussions showed that while the country is generally functioning and moving forward with a view to EU membership in the medium or long term, progress is gradual and expected standards have not yet been fully met.
Finally, it should be noted that a French liaison magistrate in Ukraine is expected to be appointed in the near future.
Diary
31 March 2026
Celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Sino-French Centre for Legal and Notarial Training and Exchanges, Shanghai, China
14 & 15 April 2026
Seminar on combating money laundering in Central Asia, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
16 & 17 April 2026
8th Conference of Mediterranean Notariats on “The Investment Instrument in the Mediterranean Area”, at the CSN in Paris
24 25 April 2026
Conference of European civil-law notaries on the theme “A Competitive Europe – Dialogue between Law and Economics”, Salzburg, Austria