Editing Notary public (section)

==Common law jurisdictions==
The duties and functions of notaries public are described in ''Brooke's Notary'' on page 19 in these terms:

{{blockquote|Generally speaking, a notary public [...] may be described as an officer of the law [...] whose public office and duty it is to draw, attest or certify under his/her official seal deeds and other documents, including [[Will (law)|wills]] or other testamentary documents, conveyances of [[Real property|real]] and [[personal property]] and [[Power of attorney|powers of attorney]]; to authenticate such documents under his signature and official seal in such a manner as to render them acceptable, as proof of the matters attested by him, to the judicial or other public authorities in the country where they are to be used, whether by means of issuing a notarial certificate as to the due execution of such documents or by drawing them in the form of public instruments; to keep a protocol containing originals of all instruments which he makes in the public form and to issue authentic copies of such instruments; to administer oaths and declarations for use in proceedings [...] to note or certify transactions relating to negotiable instruments, and to draw up protests or other formal papers relating to occurrences on the voyages of ships and their navigation as well as the carriage of cargo in ships." [Footnotes omitted.]}}

A notary, in almost all [[common law]] jurisdictions other than most of North America, is a practitioner trained in the drafting and execution of legal documents.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is a Notary Public? |url=https://www.nationalnotary.org/knowledge-center/about-notaries/what-is-a-notary-public |access-date=2022-10-27 |website=National Notary Association |language=en}}</ref> Historically, notaries recorded matters of judicial importance in addition to private transactions or events where an officially authenticated record or a document drawn up with professional skill or knowledge was required. The functions of notaries specifically include the preparation of certain types of documents (including international contracts, deeds, wills, and powers of attorney) and certification of their due execution, administering of oaths, [[witness]]ing [[affidavit]]s and statutory declarations, certification of copy documents, noting and protesting of [[bill of exchange|bills of exchange]], and the preparation of [[ship]]s' [[sea protest|protests]].
[[File:Pakistan Notary example.jpg|thumb|right|An example of a notarized acknowledgment]]
Documents certified by notaries are sealed with the notary's [[Seal (emblem)|seal]] (which may be a traditional embossed marking or a modern stamp) and are often, as a matter of best practice or else jurisdictional law, recorded by the notary in a register (also called a "protocol") maintained and permanently kept by him or her. The use of a seal by definition means a "notarial act" was performed. 
In countries subscribing to the [[Apostille convention|Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents or Apostille Convention]], additional steps are required for use of documents across international borders. Some documents must be notarized locally and then sealed by the regulating authority (e.g., in the U.S., the Secretary of State of the state in which the notary is commissioned)–sometimes, documents may skip directly to this level–and then a final act of certification is required, known as an [[apostille]]. The apostille is issued by a government department (usually the Foreign Affairs Department; the Department of State in the U.S.; or similar). For countries which are not subscribers to that convention, an "authentication" or "legalization" must be provided by one of a number of methods, including by the Foreign Affairs Ministry of the country from which the document is being sent or the embassy, Consulate-General, consulate or High Commission of the country to which it is being sent.