Abstract:
Quebec civil law is often described as being mixed. Indeed, it is at the intersection of the civil law and common law traditions. However, the 1991 civil law recodification gave Quebec law more autonomy relative to the different traditions that had served as models. While the Quebec Civil Code (the replacement to the Civil Code of Lower Canada) was the product of an exercise in “re-civilizing” Quebec civil law, I contend that, nevertheless, the concept of mixité (mixity) is still relevant to understanding Quebec civil law. I will resort to concepts, such as legal acculturation, that describe the processes leading to the mixité of a legal system. I also assert that the mixité of the sources is not the most important characteristic of Quebec’s legal system, but rather that it is the mixité of the legal methods and the mixité of the legal culture. While the Civil Code has changed, its legal environment has not. Thus, the interpretation of the Civil Code contributes to perpetuation of the mixité. I also provide some recent examples.
