The Distinctive Character of the Quebec Legal System

Quebec is unique in Canada not only for its language and culture but also for its legal system. Unlike the other Canadian provinces which are based on the British common law tradition, the roots of Quebec’s private law are based on the civil law and Napoleonic Code1 from France. The common law influence has penetrated into the Quebec legal system, making it distinctive, influenced both by the civil law and the common law (Tjaden). There are only few countries in the world in which different legal regimes co-exist. Such countries, like for example South Africa, Zimbabwe, the Philippines or Scotland, and provinces/states such as Quebec or Louisiana, are often called “mixed jurisdictions” or “bijuralist systems” (Tetley, 677-738; Orucu et al.). The classic definition of a mixed jurisdiction was made by Frederick P. Walton and it says that: „Mixed jurisdictions are legal systems in which the Romano-Germanic tradition has become suffused to some degree by Anglo-American law” (Walton, 1). Let us take a brief historical walk in the past to see what influenced the Canadian legal system, to show the main differences between common law and civil law, and to prove the distinctive character of current laws of Quebec.