GENERAL

Unlike other Canadian provinces and other common law countries (ex. England, USA, Australia, etc.), Québec’s Civil law is based upon the French Civil Law tradition and not the British Common Law tradition. Québec’s Civil Law is also different from the Civil Law in other Civil Law countries (ex. Italy, France, Belgium, Argentina etc.) because each country’s Civil Code is unique and Québec’s Civil Law is different from that of other countries. This means that lawyers practicing in Québec (ex. labour lawyers, estates and successions lawyers, wrongful dismissal lawyers, litigators) are doing so with a different Civil Law from other countries.

No, Québec Law is not substantially any more or less favourable to a person than the law of another province or country. Québec Law is simply different regarding many issues. Sometimes the difference simply changes the rules and the procedure required to do things and doesn’t have much of a positive or a negative effect on anyone. At other times, the differences create different advantages and disadvantages for different people. Still, there are times when Québec Law isn’t all that different from the laws from other provinces or countries. Ultimately, whether the variations in the law being different have any effect depends upon the issues in question and on the circumstances of a given case.