Two systems in one country

Quebec is the only Canadian province whose private law derives from the civil-law tradition. The other nine provinces and three territories use common law. Public law in Quebec is largely common-law, including criminal, administrative, and constitutional. Private law in Quebec — contract, property, family, succession, civil liability — is governed by the Civil Code of Quebec (CCQ).

This bijuralism shapes statutory interpretation, judicial style, and the SCC's role.

The Civil Code of Quebec

Enacted in 1991 and in force since 1994, the CCQ replaced the Civil Code of Lower Canada (1866). It is a comprehensive codification of private law, organised as follows:

Book One: Persons (status, capacity, names, family).
Book Two: The Family (marriage, parental authority, succession).
Book Three: Successions.
Book Four: Property (categories, ownership, modalities, dismemberments).
Book Five: Obligations (contracts, civil liability, prescription).
Book Six: Prior Claims and Hypothecs.
Book Seven: Evidence.
Book Eight: Prescription.
Book Nine: Publication of Rights.
Book Ten: Private International Law.

The CCQ is the primary source of private law in Quebec. Doctrine (academic writing) and jurisprudence are secondary — interpretive aids rather than independent sources.

Method of interpretation

A civil-law lawyer begins with the Code, not with cases. Articles are read systematically, against neighbouring provisions, in light of the structure of the Code as a whole. Cases illustrate the application of the Code; they do not bind subsequent decisions in the same way as common-law precedent.

The CCQ's preliminary provision states that it constitutes a body of rules which, in all matters within the letter, spirit or object of its provisions, lays down the jus commune of Quebec.

Federal-provincial bijuralism

Federal statutes in Canada often have to address both legal systems. The Federal Law-Civil Law Harmonization Act (and its successors) aligns federal legislation with Quebec civil-law concepts. The SCC reads federal legislation in dialogue with the CCQ where the matter is one of private law.

The SCC routinely sits in panels that include both common-law and civilian judges to ensure both traditions are heard.

A few canonical landing points

Quebec (Attorney General) v A (2013): Quebec's exclusion of de facto spouses from spousal-support and matrimonial-property regimes was upheld 5-4. The decision illustrates the QC emphasis on autonomy and choice in private regimes.
Quebec subsequently legislated (Bill 56, 2024) to introduce the parental union regime providing some protections to cohabiting parents.

Cross-system terminology

Common-law students should be careful with vocabulary:

"Contract" in QC civil law has its own articles (Title One of Book Five). Concepts like consideration are absent; cause and object govern.
"Tort" is "civil liability" or "extracontractual responsibility" (CCQ art 1457).
"Trust" — historically alien to civil law — was introduced as the patrimony-by-appropriation in CCQ arts 1260-1298.
"Real property" is "immovable" (CCQ arts 899ff).

Why this matters for non-Quebec students

Even outside Quebec, students benefit from understanding how the SCC engages with civil law. National concepts — federal statutory schemes, Charter analysis, criminal law — operate against a bijural backdrop. The SCC is the apex court of two legal traditions, not one.

Quebec Civil Law: A Primer for Common-Law Students