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Dematerialized Notaries
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128 Chapter 6 adequacy of the model, inform its possible revision, or inspire altogether new designs to emerge. The case studies also provide evidence of the depth of our historical engagement with paper. In The Myth of the Paperless Office, Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper, two human-computer interaction researchers, provide an extensive argument for why this relationship matters. In a series of ethnographic studies of office tasks, they demonstrate how “paper and work practices have coevolved over the years, and changing these longstanding work patterns with existing social, technological, and cultural infrastructures is difficult.”13 There is thus something highly problematic about the portrayal of the digital sublime as freedom from the tyranny of paper.14 Such a conceptualization effectively prevents us from devising adequate strategies for managing this massive transition in how we go about accomplishing administrative tasks, materially and cognitively. As Sellen and Harper note, “There need to be clear-cut reasons for making changes, based on a good understanding of the existing social, physical, and technological infrastructure already in place in any given work setting. Change for the sake of change is hugely problematic. Going paperless for the sake of ‘out with the old, in with the new’ is destined to end in failure.”15 The three case studies that follow, each showcasing a different approach to managing technological change, suggest that there is indeed much wisdom in these remarks. Dematerialized Notaries In the fall of 1999, the Conseil supérieur du notariat, the governing body of the French notarial profession, announced the grand opening of its secure interface to cyberspace, the Réseau Electronique NotariAL, or REAL. The timing of the official opening of the REAL network was not fortuitous but came rather at the precise moment when the draft bill on electronic signatures entered its first reading at the Senate. A full-fledged notarial public-key infrastructure, REAL would provide incontrovertible proof of the ability of the profession to reinvent itself and shed its medieval instruments of pen and paper for the modern smart card—in short, to enter a new age of electronic notarial authenticity (see figures 6.1 and 6.2). The bringing about of such a new age would involve profound changes within Paper and State 129 Figure 6.1 “The notarial profession, guarantor of authenticity.” 1997 cover, Notaires Vie Professionelle , the professional magazine published by the Conseil supérieur du notariat. Image courtesy of the Conseil supérieur du notariat. [52.55.55.239] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 01:22 GMT) 130 Chapter 6 Figure 6.2 “The card of the notarial electronic network.” 1999 cover, Notaires Vie Professionelle. The smart card containing the cryptographic keys was eventually replaced with a USB key. Image courtesy of the Conseil supérieur du notariat. Paper and State 131 the profession, both at the material level, through the deployment of the notarial PKI, and at more conceptual levels, through the development of a new legal concept of electronic authenticity. Notaries could deploy considerable resources in the service of these objectives. The modern French notarial profession is wealthy and well organized.16 The basis of that wealth is a monopoly granted by the state, whereby real estate contracts—buying, selling, exchanging, dividing, bequeathing, mortgaging—must be manufactured by a notary. A number of other acts are often formalized by notaries, even though the law does not formally require it. Wills, for example, are legally valid as long as they are written and signed in the hand of the testator, but often benefit from notarial authenticity, which testifies to the free and informed consent of the individual in stating his last wishes. About half of the individuals who enter notarial offices do so for matters related to real estate; a quarter do so for donations, wills, and marriage contracts. Notarial business is thus firmly established on its lucrative monopolistic base, with a global revenue half that of lawyers, a profession that counts ten times as many practitioners. In addition to France, the notarial system is established in sixty-one different nations across four continents—among others, Italy, Spain, Germany, Russia, most of the former African and Asian colonies of France, and almost all of South and Central America. China adopted the notarial system in the late 1980s, as part of the reform of its justice system (although not as a liberal profession). Absent from this list are countries of commonlaw tradition, in which notaries perform a much...