1950-1952

France took over the role of President of the International Union of Notaries for the very first time with Pierre Deteix.

1957

First Congress of the International Union of Notaries held in France.

1976

Conference of the Presidents of the Notarial Professions of the six founding countries of the EEC (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) created in Paris.

1979

Second Congress of the International Union of Notaries held in France and opened by the Prime Minister.

1979-1982

France took over the role of President of the International Union of Notaries for the very second time with Louis Chaine.

1992

The Association of French-Speaking Notaries (Association du notariat francophone – ANF) created in Paris (www.notariat-francophone.org). France was one of the founding members.

1993

Centre for Vietnamese and French Law (Maison du droit vietnamo-française) opened in Hanoi by the French Ministry of Justice, the CSN and other partners. It supported cooperation between the two countries for 19 years, before closing in 2012

1993

New turning point: a Conference of Notaries of the European Union created, to replace the Conference of Presidents. It brought together all notarial professions from the European Union, including France as one of the founding members. In 2006, it became the Council of the Notariats of the European Union (www.cnue.eu).

2001

Opened the Sino-French Centre for Legal and Notarial Training and Exchanges in Shanghai, with the Shanghai Office of Justice. The result? More than 5,000 Chinese notaries have been trained. (www.cnfr-notaire.org)

2001-2011

Signed various partnership agreements with the notarial professions in Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania), the Indian Ocean (Mauritius and Madagascar) and North Africa and also with the Ministries of Justice in Cambodia, Serbia and Vietnam.

2005

Opened an office of French notaries in Brussels.

2005

First congress of European notaries held in Rome and presided by Claude Jaquet, a French notary.

2005

European Network of Registers of Wills launched, to make it easier to find wills in other European countries. It now has 20 members. (www.arert.eu)

2006

Organised the very first Colloquium of Mediterranean Notariats in Marseille.

2007

Civil Law Initiative created. Our president appointed as the Vice President of the initiative, in its bylaws. (www.fondation-droitcontinental.org)

2009

International notarial information sessions launched in liaison with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, providing free legal information to French citizens residing abroad and held at French consulates and embassies.  

2009

Organised an international colloquium on the theme of “Security of Land Tenure – Economic Prosperity” under the patronage of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Attended by all types of professionals involved in land management and international stakeholders, the colloquium raised awareness of the magnitude of the issues at stake.

2010-2013

France took over as president of the International Union of Notaries for the third time with Jean-Paul Decorps.

2011

Involved in the publication of a book entitled “La terre, un droit humain”, written by Abdoulaye Harissou (a notary in Cameroon) and published by Dunod. The book was prefaced by Jacques Chirac and Abdou Diouf and presented concrete proposals for improving the security of land tenure worldwide, through micro-ownership.

2011

Signed our first agreements with international organisations, namely UN-Habitat and the International Development Law Organization.

2012

Committed, with the World Bank, to a global forum on law, justice and development.

2012

Heavily involved in the launch of the EU-Fides project: a shared platform facilitating cooperation between notaries in Europe.

2012

“Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests”, to which we contributed, adopted by the 96 members of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

2013

Branch of our entity opened in Beijing, at the University of Political Science and Law.

2013

Internot, the international arm of the CSN, created. Its name was changed to “CSN International” in 2018. (www.csn-international.fr)

2013-2018

Signed various cooperation agreements with the notarial professions in China, Colombia, the Comoros, Germany, Haiti, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Mongolia, Quebec and the United Arab Emirates and with two main objectives: to promote exchanges between notaries in our countries for the benefit of our increasingly mobile citizens and contribute to the proper training of notaries and the rule of law.

2013

Signed an agreement with UNICEF to develop the legal protection of children worldwide, as children are the first victims of insecurity.

2014

Contributed to the publication of a book entitled “Ghost children”, written by the President and Secretary-General of the ANF, published by Albin Michel and prefaced by Robert Badinter. It raises awareness of the plight of undocumented children, who are a common occurrence in developing countries and are easy prey for all types of traffickers, as they have no official identity. It also proposes innovative solutions from the French notariat to tackle this issue.

2014

Practical guide to the implementation of civil status registers and censuses published by the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF) in association with the ANF.

2016

Organised the third Congress of the International Union of Notaries in Paris, in the presence of the French, Serbian and Georgian Ministers of Justice.

2016

Launched a “co-ownership kit” for foreign countries, after identifying co-ownership as a solution to improve building management and prevent insalubrious conditions, in collaboration with the Ordre des géomètres-experts (Professional Surveyors Body) and the FNAIM.

2017

At Expo 2017 Astana on “Future Energy. Action for Global Sustainability”, organised a legal forum on “Sustainable Development for Notaries” with the French Ambassador in the French pavilion, with the participation of the notarial profession of Russia and seven countries from central Asia.

2018

Signed a cooperation agreement with the Chinese Association of Notaries to facilitate Franco-Chinese exchanges.

2019

Annual Congress of French Notaries held abroad for the very first time, in Brussels, with an international theme.

2019

Signed a new cooperation agreement with the Serbian Ministry of Justice to improve the digital tools available to notaries in Serbia.

2022

Lionel Galliez, notaire in France, is elected Président of the International Union of Notaries for three years. It’s the fourth time that this institution is chaired by a French notaire.

1948

Our international work reached a turning point when we decided, alongside 18 other countries (Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba,  Ecuador, Italy, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland and Uruguay), to create the International Union of Notaries (www.uinl.org). It now has 91 members!