Constitutional and Administrative Law Foundations of the Notariat
What this domain tests
This domain checks whether you can place the notariat inside Kazakhstan’s constitutional order and administrative machinery. The exam expects you to know that notarial activity is a form of preventive justice: the notary does not resolve disputes but gives documents public credibility and, where the law allows, executory force.
Core rules
- The Constitution is the supreme law; notarial acts must respect human dignity, privacy, property, and the right to judicial protection.
- The notariat operates under the Law on Notariat and subordinate acts of the Ministry of Justice. Territorial justice bodies maintain control and licensing; the Notarial Chamber exercises professional self-government.
- Legality, independence, impartiality, and confidentiality are administrative as well as ethical duties. A notary may not act outside competence or under outside instruction.
- A refusal to perform a notarial act is not an informal conversation: it must be reasoned and written, and the applicant must be told how to challenge it.
- Administrative procedure supplies the framework for registration, licensing, inspections, and appeals, but a notarial act itself is not an administrative act.
Worked example
A private notary refuses to certify a power of attorney because the principal’s passport has expired. The correct reasoning is identification and legality: the notary cannot establish identity and capacity from an invalid document. The refusal should be recorded in writing with the ground and appeal route. The notary should not “fix” the problem by accepting a driver’s licence if the law requires a passport or ID card.
Traps
Confusing the notary with a court or with a state registration authority; treating private notaries as public officials for all purposes; assuming a verbal refusal is enough; ignoring that control by the Ministry of Justice does not permit the ministry to dictate the outcome of a particular notarial act.