Consolidated as of April 17, 1982.

This introductory text is intended to demystify the law and to provide information on the key components of the Canadian legal system including chapters on: The nature of law and competing theories of law Legal pluralism - how the Canadian legal system interacts with various religious legal systems Sources of Canadian law including legislation and caselaw The legal history of Britain, the reception of English law in Canada, the history of Civil Law in Quebec, and the bijural system The Constitution and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The structure of Canadian government Courts across Canada and the work of judges and lawyers Problems regarding access to justice Substantive law including Criminal Law, Property Law, Contract Law, and Tort Law Procedural laws governing civil disputes and criminal prosecutions.

"Canada's federal system, composed of ten provincial governments and three territories, all with varying economies and political cultures, is often blamed for the country's failure to develop coordinated policy responses to key issues. But in other federal and multi-level governance systems, the ability of multiple governments to test a variety of policy responses has been lauded as an effective way to build local and national policy. Despite high-profile examples of policy diffusion in Canada, there is surprisingly little academic study of policy learning and diffusion among provinces. Featuring cutting edge research, Provincial Policy Laboratories explores the cross-jurisdictional movement of policies among governments in Canada's federal system. The book is comprised of case studies in a range of emerging policy areas, including parentage rights, hydraulic fracturing regulations, species at risk legislation, sales and aviation taxation, and marijuana policy. Throughout, the contributors aim to increase knowledge about this understudied aspect of Canadian federalism and contribute to the practice of intergovernmental policy making across the country."--