The Discovery and Assimilation of British Constitutional Law Principles in Quebec, 1764-1774

ABSTRACT

This paper examines information available to Francophone persons regarding their rights as British subjects prior to the adoption of the 1774 Quebec Act, as well as the use they made of these concepts. The bilingual Quebec Gazette reported on legal developments in France, England, and the American colonies, including challenges to the traditional vision of governmental authority. It discussed the right to be taxed by elected representatives and the conflicts between the metropolis and the colonies. Debates about these issues are thought to have appeared in Quebec only after the beginning of the American Revolution, but they circulated earlier. Educated members of the Francophone elite sought more specific information about the new legal system. Many of them were eager to obtain an Assembly, if Catholics could sit in it. This was considered one of their rights as British subjects, together with the continuation of property rights guaranteed by the Capitulation of 1760 and, by extension, inheritance and matrimonial laws. In the end, requests for an assembly were shelved in order to obtain religious equality. Thus, British officials were free to declare that Canadians had no interest in such an institution, creating a lasting and misleading impression.

 

Ce texte résume deux publications parues en langue française: 

« La découverte du droit constitutionnel  britannique dans une colonie francophone : la Gazette de Québec, 1764-1774 », (2013) 47 (2) R.J.T.U.M. 319-355

et 

« Les revendications des nouveaux sujets, francophones et catholiques, de la Province de Québec, 1764-1774 », dans Blaine BAKER et Donald FYSON (dir.), Essays in the History of Canadian Law: Quebec and the Canadas, Toronto, Osgoode Society, 2013, p. 131-186.

Ce contenu a été mis à jour le 12/05/2016 à 16 h 41 min.