Mali Notaire Concours common mistakes
Mali Notaire Concours · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Reciting the conditions of Article 1108 of the Code civil (consentement, capacité, objet, cause) as a closed list and then failing to test each condition against the facts of the case, so that a vice du consentement or an incapacity hidden in the scenario is never spotted.
Candidates memorise the article as a catechism during revision and reproduce it mechanically in the copy, treating the enumeration as the answer rather than as a grid of analysis. The concours rewards qualification of facts, not recitation.
What to do instead
For every contrat question, build a four-line table (consentement / capacité / objet / cause or contenu) and write one sentence per line applying the facts: who consented, how, with what information, what capacity, what price, what lawful purpose. Where a vice is arguable (dol by silence, erreur sur la substance, lésion), state the qualification, the evidence in the scenario, and the sanction (nullité relative, dommages-intérêts).
Confusing the régime matrimonial (communauté de biens, séparation de biens, participation aux acquêts) with the régime successoral and applying community-property rules to the liquidation of a succession, or forgetting that the surviving spouse's rights under the Code des personnes et de la famille of Mali differ from the French model.
The two matters are revised in separate blocks and the candidate never drills the articulation between them, although the concours frequently poses a fact pattern where a spouse dies and both the matrimonial liquidation and the succession must be resolved in order.
What to do instead
Practise composite cases: qualify the marriage regime first, liquidate it (biens propres, biens communs, récompenses), then open the succession and identify heirs and the surviving spouse's share. Write the two operations as separate headed sections in the answer so the examiner sees the sequence. Keep a one-page table of the Malian family-code rules on the surviving spouse's rights and check it before every exercise.
Treating the acte authentique as automatically enforceable and skipping the distinction between force exécutoire, formula exécutoire and the cases where the notary must obtain a judge's authorisation (for example expropriation-type measures, or a clause that requires homologation), and ignoring the rules on signification and the délai d'appel.
Candidates learn that 'l'acte authentique fait foi et est exécutoire' as a slogan and never study the exceptions, the regime of the minute, the expédition and the copie exécutoire, nor the interaction between the notarial deed and the juge de l'exécution.
What to do instead
Build a flowchart: rédaction, lecture, signature, minute retained by the notary, expédition delivered, copie exécutoire issued, signification, execution or contestation. For each arrow, note who may act and what the obstacle is. Practise drafting a short fact pattern answer that identifies precisely which document is needed to seize a huissier de justice and why.
Answering a publicité foncière question by describing the general principle of opposabilité without naming the conservation foncière, the titre foncier, the registre foncier, the inscription and the effect of non-inscription in the Malian land regime.
The candidate transposes French notions (livre foncier, purge des hypothèques, radiation) onto Mali without verifying the local institutional vocabulary, and the examiner reads this as a lack of preparation on the specific syllabus.
What to do instead
Memorise a short lexicon of Malian land law: titre foncier, conservation foncière, registre foncier, mutation, inscription, radiation, morcellement, and the role of the service des domaines. For each, write one sentence on what it does and one on the consequence of omitting it. Then answer one past-paper-style question per week using only that vocabulary.
In company-law questions, describing the SARL and the SA with generic features and failing to state, precisely, the conditions of constitution, the minimum capital, the organ competent for each decision, and the liability of the gérant or the dirigeant toward third parties and toward the company.
Candidates revise company law by reading summaries and reproduce adjectives ('souple', 'plus lourde') instead of figures and competences. The concours tests the ability to advise a client on a concrete choice of vehicle.
What to do instead
Make a comparison grid across SARL, SA and SAS-type forms with columns: capital minimum, number of associés, organes de gestion, décisions collectives and their majorities, responsabilité, régime fiscal. Fill it from the applicable Malian commercial-law text (not from memory of French law) and then write a two-page advisory note recommending a form for a given project, justifying each criterion.
In succession and libéralités questions, calculating the réserve and the quotité disponible without first fixing the composition of the heirs and the mass, and without deducting the rapport des donations antérieures, so the arithmetic is internally inconsistent.
The candidate jumps to the fraction (half, third, quarter) learned by heart and applies it to the gross estate, forgetting to reconstitute the masse de calcul, to value the biens at the date of death, and to reintegrate liberalities subject to rapport.
What to do instead
Impose a fixed four-step written routine: (1) list the heirs and their rank, (2) reconstitute the masse de calcul by adding back reportable gifts at their value at death, (3) deduct the passif, (4) apply the reserve fraction and check the total equals the mass. Do ten such calculations with explicit figures and verify the final sum; the examiner will look for the visible arithmetic chain.
Writing the déontologie answer as moral generalities about honesty and confidentiality, without citing the concrete duties of the notaire (devoir de conseil, impartialité, secret professionnel, lutte contre le blanchiment, tenue des comptes clients, obligation de vérifier l'identité et l'origine des fonds) nor the corresponding disciplinary or civil consequences.
Ethics is treated as the 'easy' topic that needs no revision, so the candidate produces platitudes; yet this is where the concours separates those who know the profession's rulebook from those who do not.
What to do instead
Build a table of duties: for each duty, the source of the rule, the concrete behaviour it requires in a file, the risk if breached, and the sanction (disciplinaire, civile, pénale). Then practise a scenario where a client asks the notary to backdate a deed or to receive cash: write the refusal, the duty to report, and the record-keeping obligation.
In fiscalité de l'enregistrement, quoting a rate without stating the base, the event that triggers the tax, the person liable, and the deadline for registration, and confusing droits d'enregistrement with droits de mutation and with the publicité foncière fee.
Rates are easy to memorise in isolation and candidates stop there; the exam question almost always turns on the base and the timing, which the candidate never drills.
What to do instead
For each category of act (vente d'immeuble, bail, donation, acte de société, mutation par décès), write four lines: fait générateur, base d'imposition, taux applicable, redevable et délai. Verify each against the current Malian fiscal text rather than a foreign model, and note any exonérations. Then compute the tax on three worked examples with figures.
Answering the culture générale or expression écrite paper with an unstructured block of prose: no introduction posing the problem, no announced plan, no transitions, no conclusion, and factual or spelling errors in the references used.
Candidates believe general culture cannot be revised and spend their preparation on technical subjects, so they arrive without a method for dissertation or commentaire and without a stock of verified facts about Mali's institutions and recent reforms.
What to do instead
Adopt one plan template (introduction with accroche, problématique, annonce; two or three parts each with two sub-parts; conclusion) and apply it to ten practice subjects under timed conditions. Keep a verified fact sheet on Malian institutions, recent legal reforms and the notarial profession, with dates and sources checked, and refuse to cite any figure you cannot source.
In the oral, presenting a solution immediately instead of first restating the facts, qualifying them, and announcing the method; and failing to answer the examiner's follow-up question directly, instead returning to the prepared speech.
The oral is prepared like a written answer recited aloud, and stress pushes the candidate to dump memorised content; examiners test reactivity and the ability to reason aloud under questioning.
What to do instead
Rehearse a fixed opening: 'Les faits sont les suivants... La question de droit est... J'examine d'abord... puis...'. Then train with a mock examiner who interrupts and asks 'pourquoi' three times; practise answering in one sentence before developing. Record yourself and check that the facts, the rule, the application and the conclusion are each audible.