At the invitation of the European Law Institute (ELI), Valentina Rubertelli, President of the UINL European Affairs Commission, participated as a keynote speaker at the High-Level Forum on Extra-Judicial Administration of Justice in Cross-Border Family and Succession Matters, organised online by the ELI on 8 June 2026. She represented UINL President David Figueroa Márquez on this occasion.
The Forum, chaired by ELI President Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell, aimed to discuss concrete measures to implement the recommendations set out in the ELI Principles on Extra-Judicial Administration of Justice in Family and Succession Matters.
The Notary: A legitimate public authority in voluntary jurisdiction matters
In her address, Valentina Rubertelli highlighted that dejudicialisation is a concrete, everyday reality: families going through divorce without a court procedure, estates settled by agreement, vulnerable people protected without a court order. She underscored that this trend does not represent a withdrawal of the State, but rather a transfer of public authority to other actors — most notably notaries.
She presented the conclusions of Theme 2 of the 31st UINL Congress, held in Berlin in 2025, under the title “Non-contentious proceedings: new roles at the service of the public”: the Congress demonstrated that notaries are a fully legitimate authority to take on functions traditionally reserved for judges in non-contentious matters.
International Cooperation with the Judiciary
Valentina Rubertelli also recalled that this conviction is shared by the international judiciary: in 2023, in Brasilia, the UINL and the International Association of Judges signed a cooperation agreement aimed at improving the administration of justice and reducing the burden on courts. Since then, notaries and judges have been working together to identify avenues for transferring and sharing competences.
