No province in Canada has codified a written constitution, and whether Quebec should be the first remains a controversial question. A Written Constitution for Quebec? enters into the debate, drawing a roadmap through the legal, political, and constitutional terrain of the issue. Leading scholars each take their own position in the debate, examining the issue from various sides and exploring the forms and limits of a codified Quebec constitution by asking whether Quebec should adopt a written constitution, how the province might go about it, and what such a document might achieve. Along with a comprehensive introduction to constitutional codification and how it relates to Quebec, the book opens with a proposal for a written constitution, with the analyses that follow expressing a diversity of views on the feasibility and desirability of a written constitution for the province. An array of perspectives through the lenses of Indigenous inclusion and reconciliation, interculturalism and democratic constitutionalism, and insights from other federal and plurinational states – are included in this wide-ranging volume. Taking a doctrinal, historical, theoretical, and comparative approach, A Written Constitution for Quebec? extensively addresses Quebec’s constitutional future in Canada.

The Hill Times: Best Books of 2016 A new, expanded edition of the first-ever primer on Canada’s Constitution — for anyone who wants to understand the supreme law of the land. The Canadian Constitution makes Canada’s Constitution readily accessible to readers. It includes the complete text of the Constitution Acts of 1867 and 1982 accompanied by an explanation of what each section means, along with a glossary of key terms, a short history of the Constitution, and a timeline of important constitutional events. The Canadian Constitution explains how the Supreme Court of Canada works, and describes the people and issues involved in leading constitutional cases. Author Adam Dodek, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, provides the only index so far to the Canadian Constitution, as well as fascinating background on the Supreme Court and the Constitution. This revised and expanded edition is a great primer for those coming to Canada’s Constitution for the first time, and a useful reference work for students and scholars.

Consolidated as of April 17, 1982.

Constitutional Odyssey is an account of the politics of making and changing Canada's constitution from Confederation to the present day. Peter H. Russell frames his analysis around two contrasting constitutional philosophies – Edmund Burke's conception of the constitution as a set of laws and practices incrementally adapting to changing needs and societal differences, and John Locke's ideal of a Constitution as a single document expressing the will of a sovereign people as to how they are to be governed. The first and second editions of Constitutional Odyssey, published in 1992 and 1993 respectively, received wide-ranging praise for their ability to inform the public debate. This third edition continues in that tradition. Russell adds a new preface, and a new chapter on constitutional politics since the defeat of the Charlottetown Accord in 1993. He also looks at the 1995 Quebec Referendum and its fallout, the federal Clarity Act, Quebec's Self-Determination Act, the Agreement on Internal Trade, the Social Union Framework Agreement and the Council of the Federation, progress in Aboriginal self-determination such as Nunavut and the Nisga'a Agreement, and the movement to reduce the democratic deficit in parliamentary government. Comprehensive and eminently readable, Constitutional Odyssey is as important as ever.

The Canadian system of federalism divides the power to govern between the central federal parliament and the provincial and territorial legislative assemblies. In what can be seen as a double federation, power is also divided culturally, between English and French Canada. The divisions of power and responsibility, however, have not remained static since 1867. The federal language regime (1969), for example, reconfigured cultural federalism, generating constitutional tension as governments sought to make institutions more representative of the country's diversity. In Federalism and the Constitution of Canada, award-winning author David E. Smith examines a series of royal commission and task force inquiries, a succession of federal-provincial conferences, and the competing and controversial terms of the Constitution Act of 1982 in order to evaluate both the popular and governmental understanding of federalism. In the process, Smith uncovers the reasons constitutional agreement has historically proved difficult to reach and argues that Canadian federalism 'in practice' has been more successful at accommodating foundational change than may be immediately apparent.

A History of Law in Canada is an important three-volume project. Volume One begins at a time just prior to European contact and continues to the 1860s, Volume Two covers the half century after Confederation, and Volume Three covers the period from the beginning of the First World War to 1982, with a postscript taking the account to approximately 2000. The history of law includes substantive law, legal institutions, legal actors, and legal culture. The authors assume that since 1500 there have been three legal systems in Canada – the Indigenous, the French, and the English. At all times, these systems have co-existed and interacted, with the relative power and influence of each being more or less dominant in different periods. The history of law cannot be treated in isolation, and this book examines law as a dynamic process, shaped by and affecting other histories over the long term. The law guided and was guided by economic developments, was influenced and moulded by the nature and trajectory of political ideas and institutions, and variously exacerbated or mediated intercultural exchange and conflict. These themes are apparent in this examination, and through most areas of law including land settlement and tenure, and family, commercial, constitutional, and criminal law.

This edited collection gathers together Canadian and non-Canadian scholars to reflect on and celebrate the 20thanniversary of the Quebec Secession Reference, delivered by the Canadian Supreme Court in 1998. It opens withtwo Canadian scholars exchanging thoughts on the legacy of the reference from a domestic perspective as one ofthe most questioned decisions of the Canadian Supreme Court. To follow, non-Canadian scholars discuss theimpact of this reference abroad, reflecting upon its influence in European and non-European contexts (Spain,Scotland, the EU after Brexit, Eastern European Countries, Ethiopia, and Asia). Two final chapters, one by a lawyerand one by a political scientist, explore the democratic theory behind that reference.

Constitutional politics is exceptionally intense and unpredictable. It involves negotiations over the very nature of the state and the implications of self- determination. Multinational democracies face pressing challenges to the existing order because they are composed of communities with distinct cultures, histories, and aspirations, striving to coexist under mutually agreed-upon terms. Conflict over the recognition of these multiple identities and the distribution of power and resources is inevitable and, indeed, part of what defines democratic life in multinational societies. In Constitutional Politics in Multinational Democracies André Lecours, Nikola Brassard-Dion, and Guy Laforest bring together experts on multinational democracies to analyze the claims of minority nations about their political future and the responses they elicit through constitutional politics. Essays focus on the nature of these states and the actors and political process within them. This framework allows for a multidimensional examination of crucial political periods in these democracies by assessing what constitutional politics is, who is involved in it, and how it happens. Case studies include Catalonia and Spain, Puerto Rico and the United States, Scotland and the United Kingdom, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Quebec and the Métis People in Canada. Theoretically significant and empirically rich, Constitutional Politics in Multinational Democracies is a necessary read for any student of multinationalism.