Notairesin France—an unassailable profession. Or are they?

French ‘officiers ministériels’: autonomy of the legal professions, protection of their market and an ambivalent relationship with the state

“…[16] The recent research by Gisela Shaw into French notaries -which follows up on that conducted by Ezra N. Suleiman -has resulted in identical findings, thus bearing out the quality of the analysis conducted by this author (Shaw, 2006 [18] There are a number of possible explanations for the failure of the proposed merger of the enforcement professions: perhaps bailiffs took too long when faced with the pace of reform in other related professions or their representative bodies were informed that such a project would be inapplicable.…”

“…Large Anglo-Saxon notarial firms and British notarial pressure groups have also been lobbying the European Commission to have the nationality condition 31 set aside. This would allow them a shot at the lucrative market controlled by French notaries (Shaw, 2006). The same pressure groups also complain that two other key practices are illegal, namely the system of stateimposed fees and the numerus clausus that restricts access to the profession (Shaw, 2003).…”

“…the legal provision established in 1999 for two people (either of the same or different sex) to enter into a civil union-type partnership. In this case, the beneficiaries were the former legal counsels (conseils juridiques) who then became commercial lawyers (avocats d'affaires) (Shaw, 2006). Moreover, the drive for profitability has forced certain entrepreneurial officier ministériel firms to concentrate all their efforts on major clients that generate large volumes of business and to neglect those clients deemed insignificant or insufficiently profitable, or to refer them to other colleagues.…”

“…On a more general level, notaries and bailiffs stepped up their lobbying initiatives in the 1990s and post-2000 via the representatives of the Council of the Notariats of the European Union (CNUE) and the International Union of Judicial Officers (UIHJ) at the Commission in Brussels. In 2005, the post of Vice-President for European Affairs was created within the National Council of Notaries and an office was set up in Brussels, following the example of Austria and Germany, which had been sensitive to this issue for some time (Shaw, 2006). There are major threats to notaries inherent in the European integration process.…”

“…It shook up these professions which had traditionally been essentially concerned with passing down their practices from one generation to another or between different branches of the same family (Thuderoz, 1990) and safeguarding their 'privileges' at national level. The strategies of the profession were based around fostering relations with central government and in the corridors of power (Suleiman, 1987;Quemin, 1997a;Shaw, 2006). 13 The European integration process witnessed the emergence of new strategies that sought to combine status preservation FRENCH 'OFFICIERS MINISTÉ RIELS' 171 with extending the range of services offered (mostly on a non-monopoly basis) and sometimes exporting the professions' status -i.e.…”