CONFERENCE: "La charte de la laïcité au Québec" (30 april 2014, Paris)

What: "La charte de la laïcité au Québec", conférence dans le cadre du programme "Pluralisme, démocratie religions, laïcités. "

En partenariat avec Norma

Where: Salle de conférences du Site Pouchet.UMR 8582 GSRL CNRS-EPHE Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités, 59-61 rue Pouchet - 75849 Paris Cedex 17

When: 30 april 2014, 9:30 am


Speakers:

 

Martin Meunier,

Professeur à l'Université d'Ottawa

Jean-François Laniel,

Doctorant à l’Université du Québec à  Montréal

 

All information here

ARTICLE: Morin on "The discovery and Assimilation of British Constitutional Law Principles in Quebec, 1764-1774)"

Legal History e-Journal

Michel Morin, University of Montreal,"The discovery and Assimilation of British Constitutional Law Principles in Quebec, 1764-1774)"

Abstract

This paper examines information available to Francophone persons regarding their rights as British subjects prior to the adoption of the 1774 Quebec Act, as well as the use they made of these concepts. The bilingual Quebec Gazette reported on legal developments in France, England, and the American colonies, including challenges to the traditional vision of governmental authority. It discussed the right to be taxed by elected representatives and the conflicts between the metropolis and the colonies. Debates about these issues are thought to have appeared in Quebec only after the beginning of the American Revolution, but they circulated earlier. Educated members of the Francophone elite sought more specific information about the new legal system. Many of them were eager to obtain an Assembly, if Catholics could sit in it. This was considered one of their rights as British subjects, together with the continuation of property rights guaranteed by the Capitulation of 1760 and, by extension, inheritance and matrimonial laws. In the end, requests for an assembly were shelved in order to obtain religious equality. Thus, British officials were free to declare that Canadians had no interest in such an institution, creating a lasting and misleading impression.

Full text available here

ARTICLE: Morin on "Blackstone and the Birth of Quebec's Legal Culture 1765-1867"

Legal History e-Journal, March 2014, vol. 18 n. 29

Michel Morin, University of Montreal, "Blackstone and the Birth of Quebec's Legal Culture 1765-1867"

Abstract:      

Blackstone’s commentaries were soon translated in French and became, prior to the French Revolution, the principal reference on British constitutional and criminal law. In Quebec, his work was known as early as 1767 and was used to buttress arguments for the preservation of French civil law. He was quoted in court proceedings and in a draft petition. In 1773, François-Joseph Cugnet sent documents concerning these issues to Blackstone, who forwarded them to the British Government. This probably convinced the ministry that the francophone population had no objection to English Criminal Law and to testamentary freedom. Thus, the Quebec Act of 1774 expressly preserved these parts of English Law, while restoring the laws in force prior to the Conquest concerning “Property and Civil Rights”. French versions of the Commentaries were available in Quebec as early as 1784. After the creation of an Assembly, politicians who opposed the Government and wanted to assimilate the provincial Assembly to the British House of Commons regularly quoted Blackstone. His Commentaries, which had benefitted from an improved translation by Chompré in 1822, remained a model for the first legal authors in Quebec. He clearly was part of Quebec’s legal culture and facilitated the understanding of arcane rules of English Law, both because of the clarity of his writings and of various translations of his work made in Europe.

Full text available here