Probate proceedings conducted by a notary public in the Republic of Serbia

Abstract

The introduction of the notary public service in the Serbian legal system has introduced a number of novelties in matters concerning inheritance law. The most important of them is the possibility of entrusting the probate proceedings in inheritance cases to notaries public. In the Serbian legal system, probate proceedings dealing with inheritance matters have traditionally beed conducted competent courts. This long-standing tradition is difficult to break with. Thus, the Serbian legislator still envisages the jurisdiction of the court to discuss inheritance matters, but now there is a possibility of entrusting this procedure to a notary public, when it is deemed to be expedient. In this paper, the author examines the judicial practice and the public notaries practice in an attempt to determine the justification of entrusting some probate proceedings to notaries public. Concurrently, the author analyzes the possibility of transferring competences for conducting probate proceedings entirely to public notaries. In the author's opinion, it is a realistic possibility considering that the hetherto practice of public notaries in probate proceedings speaks in favour of this legal solution, particularly taking into account the reduced caseload and timeframe needed to complete these non-litigious probate proceedings.