Which legal tradition from France is one of the sources of Canadian law?
- French criminal law
- French municipal by-laws
- The French Declaration of the Rights of Man
- The civil code of France
Answer: The civil code of France
The guide lists the civil code of France as one of the sources of Canadian law, along with laws passed by Parliament and the provincial legislatures, English common law and the unwritten constitution inherited from Great Britain. The Quebec Act of 1774 restored French civil law but kept British criminal law, so French criminal law is the wrong answer.
Learn more: Where Canadian law comes from
- Sources of Canadian law: laws passed by Parliament and the provincial legislatures, English common law, the civil code of France, and the unwritten constitution inherited from Great Britain.
- These sources secure an 800-year-old tradition of ordered liberty that dates back to Magna Carta (1215), also called the Great Charter of Freedoms.
- Habeas corpus, the right to challenge unlawful detention by the state, comes from English common law.
- The Quebec Act of 1774, passed by the British Parliament, restored French civil law in Quebec while keeping British criminal law.