Civil law (Quebec)

Civil law is the legal tradition, derived from Roman law and French law, in which private law is set out comprehensively in a code rather than developed case by case. In Canada, Quebec's private law (contracts, property, family patrimony, civil liability, and more) is governed by the Civil Code of Québec, while public law and criminal law in Quebec follow the same federal and common law framework as the rest of the country.

For researchers, the tradition changes the method: in Quebec private law matters, analysis starts from the articles of the Code, with case law and doctrine (scholarly writing) used to interpret them, and prior decisions carry weight without the same formal doctrine of binding precedent. Because Canada is bijural, federal statutes are drafted to work with both traditions, and Supreme Court of Canada decisions on Quebec civil law are an important part of the national jurisprudence.