First Ibero-American Meeting on Preventive Legal Security 
"Real estate reactivation in post-pandemic times"
UINL AMERICAN AFFAIRS COMMISSION

The American Affairs Commission of the International Union of Notaries under the Presidency of Dr. David Figueroa Marquez, held the "First Ibero-American Meeting on Preventive Legal Security" under the leitmotiv "The reactivation of real estate in post-pandemic", on 7 and 8 April 2022, in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, with the support, in addition, of the following institutions: Unión Colegiada del Notariado Colombiano (U.C.N.C. President Not. Eugenio GIL GIL), Universidad Notarial Argentina (U.N.A. Rector Dra. Cristina N. Armella), Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración (ALADI Director General Sergio ABREU), Unión Latinoamericana de Administradores Inmobiliarios (ULAI President Miguel Ángel SUMMA), Organization of American States (O.A.S.), Red Interamericana de los Catastros y Registros de la Propiedad (Secretary Lic. Mike MORA) and FIABCI (International Real Estate Federation). The active participation of all the sectors involved took place over a day and a half, in six panels made up of speakers and a coordinator, which are listed below, with their respective conclusions. 

PANEL 1: "SIMPLIFIED JOINT STOCK COMPANIES (“SOCIEDADES POR ACCIONES SIMPLIFICADAS”, SAS) AND THEIR IMPLICATION IN REAL ESTATE NEGOTIATION".
The S.A.S. as a corporate instrument in Latin America. Their suitability to serve as the basis for a secure real estate business, built on the foundations of notarial advice and instrumentation. On-line incorporation of these companies and the role of the notary in the face of the advances of computerization in this specific case. Publicity in registers of S.A.S. SAS as an instrument for the development of entrepreneurship and SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). 
This panel was moderated by Notary Eugenio GIL GIL (Colombia) and the following panellists took part: Mario César Romero Valdivieso (Peru), Alejandra Calderón Flores (Mexico), Wilson Aroldo Quiroz Monsalvo (Colombia), José Ángel Martínez Sanchíz (Spain) and Christian Leroux (Uruguay). 
Conclusion: "Simplified joint-stock companies constitute an ideal tool for the management of an agile and secure real estate market on the basis of the necessary notarial intervention in their constitution as well as in their eventual and subsequent vicissitudes. "

PANEL 2: "LEGAL PROTECTION OF LANDSCAPE AND NATURE". 
Landscape as a legal value to be protected in the Ibero-American scenario. The legal, social and economic commitment. Local legislation on landscape protection: parks, geographical features, water rights, thermal waters, etc. The limitation of private property as a tool for protection. Its impact on the notarial function. Cadastral determination of protected areas. Public registration. Commercialization of real estate projects involving them. Business development for the exploitation of tourist areas. The role of the various legal and/or real estate operators in the face of natural disasters and catastrophes: the "re-establishment" of legal and economic security in the aftermath of disasters. Relevance of the notarial function. 
The panel was moderated by Dr. Cristina Noemí Armella (Argentina) and the following panelists spoke: Marco Antonio Sepúlveda Larroucau (Chile), Sebastián Esteban Sabene (Argentina), Nelson Santiago Marrero (Puerto Rico) and Alfonso Cavallé Cruz (Spain). 
Conclusion: "The legal protection of the natural landscape requires the enactment of rules that guarantee adequate communication between the state bodies responsible for protecting it and the land and cadastral registers, so that the limitations that, to this end, the legal system imposes on the right to property can be effectively known by the notary and the parties.” 

PANEL 3: " SITUATION OF THE COMPUTERISATION OF IBERO-AMERICAN NOTARIATS, REGISTRIES AND CADASTERS IN THE POST-PANDEMIC CONTEXT: THEIR INTERRELATION WITH COMMERCIALIZATION AND INVESTMENT".
Computerization as an ongoing process requiring continuous analysis. Recognition of the need for all three sectors to evolve in this process in a mutually supportive way. Analysis of developments during the pandemic by COVID-19 and in a post-pandemic context. Presence and virtual appearance. Future projection. Access to information as an aid to the security of national and cross-border traffic and investments. Computerization as a possible tool to combat real estate fraud. The cadaster and its multipurpose role in the development and evolution of the real estate market. The panel was moderated by Not. David Figueroa Márquez (Mexico) and the following panelists took part: Enrique Margain Pitman (Mexico), Dagoberto Sibaja (Costa Rica), Goethny Fernanda García Florez (Colombia), Ana María Aljure (Colombia), Benita Hernández Cerón (Mexico) and José Ángel Martínez Sanchíz (Spain). 
Conclusion: "The computerization of public registry and cadastral services must be developed in harmony with the incorporation of technologies in the exercise of the notarial function, in order to guarantee the user the efficiency that current times demand in the service of legal security.” 

PANEL 4: "NOTARIAT, REGISTRY AND CADASTER IN THE FACE OF INFORMALITY IN LAND OCCUPATION. MEANS TO OVERCOME THIS SCOURGE". 
Informal land occupation in America as a social, political, economic and cultural phenomenon. Analysis and exchange of the different solutions provided by the States. Importance of the intervention of the three public functions involved: notary function, registry function and cadastral function. Means of overcoming and correcting this reality. Incorporation of real estate into the formal market. The need for financing of state policies. Dissemination of the tools that can be used by real estate marketers. 
The panel was moderated by Mag. Sebastián Esteban Sabene (Argentina) and the following panelists spoke: José Antonio Quirós Espinoza (Costa Rica), Javier Anaya Castillo (Peru), Eleusa Gutemberg (Brazil), Jonathan Toribio (Dominican Republic), Andrés Castro Forero (Colombia), Alfredo Ruiz del Río Prieto (Mexico) and Nelson Santiago Marrero (Puerto Rico). 
Conclusion: Irregularity in land occupation encompasses a wide range of situations that develop in the sphere of urban informality. These include: a) the land occupation of precarious settlements; b) the land occupation of those who hold a lawful possession, bilaterally acquired, without having obtained a formal title; c) the possession exercised by the owner with a registered title, but with disagreements arising from outdated cadastral information. In any of its variants, urban pathology must be resolved on the basis of interoperability between cadasters, land registries and the Notariat.”

PANEL 5: "REGULARISATION OF THE OWNERSHIP OF LAND BELONGING TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLES". 
Native peoples as a historical background. Their current recognition. Original lands of native peoples. Allotted lands. Lands of nomadic peoples. Provisions of the O.I.T. related to the recognition of lands. Solutions provided for in Latin American legislation. Cadastral determination of land. Titling with notarial intervention. Registry publicity. Analysis of the possibility of incorporating these lands into the productive market, regional economies and artisan business development. 
The panel was moderated by Mag. Sebastián Esteban Sabene (Argentina) and the following panelists spoke: Mercedes Vera de Auada (Paraguay), Roxana Ríos Martínez (Bolivia), Guillermo Escamilla Narváez (Mexico) and Cristina Noemí Armella (Argentina). 
Conclusion: "The recognition of the inherent rights of the native peoples of the Americas requires not only the issuance of instrumental titles to their lands - as a result of a prior process of socio-urban integration - but also the registration of their existence as legal persons, all of which must be developed with strict respect for their cultural identity, with an inclusive and non-invasive profile.

AND PANEL 6: "INCORPORATION OF NEW REAL RIGHTS AND MODERN REAL ESTATE FIGURES INTO LEGAL SYSTEMS. 
The legislation on real property rights according to the characteristics of each legal system (closed or open number systems). The importance of the Notariat in their configuration, of the registers in their publicity, of the cadasters in the determination of their object and of the real estate agents in their commercialization and financing. The current role of the four sectors in the incorporation of new rights in rem that companies require in view of the modern dynamics of the real estate market. Implementation of modern real estate figures in the commercialization of real estate, with special reference to fiduciary businesses and crowdfunding (entrepreneurial capital). Co-ownership and/or condominiums and/or horizontal property and/or real estate complexes; their administration and relevance in business transactions. The importance of notarial advice. 
The panel was moderated by Not. Homero López Obando (Ecuador) and the following panelists spoke: José Flavio Bueno Fischer (Brazil), Miguel Ángel Summa (Argentina), José Carlos Álvarez Varela (Costa Rica) and Jorge Subero (Dominican Republic). 
It was concluded: "The need to respond to the dynamic requirements of the current real estate market motivates the adoption of new contractual legal figures, and may also imply the enforceability of rules that create new rights in rem, in legal systems governed by the numerus clausus. 

Likewise, as a transversal conclusion of all the topics analyzed in this Meeting, it is stated that preventive legal security requires a joint commitment among all real estate operators - whether they are legal professionals or not - to strengthen ties and join efforts aimed at an effective exercise of the property rights that correspond to individuals, as this is the path to be followed to prevent uncertainties and conflicts with respect to them. The meeting was attended by the lawyer Marta Lucía Ramírez Blanco, current Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia.

Cristina N. Armella.
UINL President. 2020.2022.