All-Ukrainian Forum "Notary in the Digital Economy"

The 21st century is a time when information has become more dynamic, and the speed of its acquisition, storage, and dissemination is growing exponentially. People, society, and entire professions are changing in response to the challenges generated by information technologies. A lack of understanding of new phenomena, their potential, and above all their benefits or threats, has always frightened people and provoked resistance. Similar attitudes were observed in jurisprudence as well; however, when the first websites, mobile applications, and electronic databases appeared, lawyers quickly adapted to the new conditions and today work successfully using modern gadgets. Notaries are among the first representatives of the legal profession to have demonstrated their confidence and readiness to work with digital technologies by mastering electronic registers. Terms that are new to perception — "blockchain," "smart contract," "bitcoin," "legal bots" — are gradually entering our present, heralding an electronic future. Electronic notarial practice is an inevitable future, offering new opportunities for notaries with the aim of bringing greater structure, logic, and efficiency to their work. However, they must not violate the principle of confidentiality and notarial secrecy. The issue of using information technologies in notarial practice is both relevant and complex at the same time. Given that new technologies and tools are step by step filling all spheres of public life, the need for modernization and innovation in notarial practice is particularly pressing. For example, abandoning paper archives and transitioning to an electronic documentation format could significantly simplify the notary's workflow. The creation of a unified electronic register of notarial acts, which already functions successfully in the countries of the ICN (International Council of Notaries), is timely. It will allow work to be optimized and document searches to be simplified. The Notarial Chamber of Ukraine is convinced that digital technologies should be used solely for the purpose of improving and modernizing the notarial process, which will allow Ukraine's notarial system to move confidently toward the implementation of new and already existing notarial acts. After all, one of the goals of the notarial profession is to ensure the legal security of civil turnover, so a balanced approach must be taken to the application of various legal and technical means concerning the rights and legitimate interests of citizens. This was the conclusion reached by participants of the All-Ukrainian Forum "Notaries in the Digital Economy," which took place on December 1 in Kyiv at the initiative of the Notarial Chamber of Ukraine and in joint organization with the All-Ukrainian Association "Information Security and Information Technologies." The opening of the event was attended by the President of the NPU (Notarial Chamber of Ukraine) Volodymyr Marchenko and Deputy Minister of Justice for State Registration Olena Sukmanova. More than 150 notaries from various regions of Ukraine had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the modern development of digital technologies being implemented at the state level and the possibilities of their application in notarial activity, to hear from speakers about new trends and technologies in the functioning of registers, as well as to enhance their competence in matters of information security and personal data protection.