Résumé
In France, Civil law Notaries were anointed by the civil code, which erected them as guardian of legal certainty in family and land legal relations. However, their national legitimacy is now eroding simultaneously with the authority of the State,which obeys the “Europe of Trade.” Civil law Notaries should root themselves in the law of the European convention on human rights in order to give them supra‐national legitimacy. The 111th French Notaries congress, which lead the profession in Strasbourg last May, appropriately showed them the way. Article 6§1 of the Convention can enable the civil law Notaries, privileged actors of preventive justice, to meet this “authentic challenge.”