Electronic notarial acts and the limits for the declaration of will

perspectives for the post-pandemic times

Abstract

Recent statistics reveal the exponential growth of electronic notarial acts, especially wills. This growth is attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic that emerged in the year 2020. In order to meet various demands and ensure the expected legal security of extrajudicial services, the National Council of Justice issued Provision No. 100 on May 26, 2020, which implemented the “e-Nota-ry” system in Brazil. As a result, several structural changes have guided the swift digital transfor-mation of Brazilian notaries’ offices and notaries, without an effective reform of the Civil Code. Based on this justification, the present study will explore the problem as described, considering the need for specific legislative reform so that some of the enhancements revealed by the inno-vative system do not suffer from potential nul-lity. The hypothesis discussed is that, although desirable, reform is not essential for the conti-nuity of activities already initiated by the “e-No-tary” system. Methodologically, the research will be based on the inductive method, starting with a specific examination of the mentioned system to reach the more abstract level of the law it-self. In the end, a conclusion will be presented to indicate the results obtained from the research.