In the US (and I think most common law jurisdictions), a notary public is basically Certificate Transparency for legal documents. The notary records that so-and

In the US (and I think most common law jurisdictions), a notary public is basically Certificate Transparency for legal documents. The notary records that so-and-so signed such-and-such on this date in their log, and if you have any doubts about that, they can produce that log for you to prove to that they witnessed it. By contrast, civil law notaries are generally full-on lawyers who are trained and intended to perform several legal tasks.