In the area of civil and commercial law, at the federal and provincial levels (with the exception of Quebec), there are no codes but rather pieces of legislation governing generally large legal institutions. In recent decades, however, there has been a trend towards the enactment of more and more extensive legislation (company law, bankruptcy legislation, etc.). At the same time, however, there remain many legal institutions which are still mainly governed by common law (property law, liability for damage, etc.). In some cases, such as contractual obligations, the common law doctrines embraced by the Canadian courts are merely supplemented by provincial legislation governing specific issues.
Marriage, family relations, divorce and inheritance are governed by federal and, in part, provincial legislation. In this area there have been very significant changes in recent decades. This was followed in many provinces by the Family Law Reform Act of 1968 (e.g. Ontario in 1978), which strengthens the property autonomy of spouses, limits intestacy and provides inheritance rights for the surviving spouse and minor children.
In the area of corporate regulation and commerce there are a number of acts modeled on the relevant English law, but based on the experience of American laws and their own business practices: among these are the federal laws on corporations, banks, insurance companies, bankruptcy, many of which are revised every 10 years. As far as American legal doctrine is concerned, its influence is particularly noticeable in the area of insurance company regulation.
Canada has issued a lot of federal and provincial legislation aimed at preventing illegal mergers and monopoly pricing (the so-called antitrust legislation, very similar to the American one). The effectiveness of these laws is greatly weakened by persistent violations, primarily by transnational corporations dominated by American capital.
Civil and commercial law in the province of Quebec has a number of significant features. French law and customary law were applied here until 1866, when the Civil Code of Quebec (in French and English) was adopted. This Civil Code, which generally reproduces the structure of the French Civil Code of 1804, also includes a book on commercial law, contrary to the 19th-century tradition of issuing a separate commercial code. In regulating certain legal institutions the Civil Code of 1866 was guided not so much by the Napoleonic Code as by French law of the late 18th century, inherited by the descendants of the French colonists.
The changes in the Civil Code of 1866 in recent decades have mainly concerned the norms of family law and brought them closer to federal law (extension of the rights of married women, children born out of wedlock, etc.). As regards trade law, the changes, which to a large extent reflect the concepts of American lawyers, were made by means of supplementary legislation rather than by the amendment of the relevant section of the Civil Code.
The new Civil Code of Quebec entered into force on January 1, 1994. It contains 3,168 articles grouped under ten books (Persons; Family; Inheritance; Estates; Liabilities; Privileges and Mortgages; Evidence; Limitation; Publicity of Rights; Private International Law).
Civil procedure in most Canadian provinces and at the federal level is based on the same principles as in the United Kingdom and the United States and is governed by relevant statutes and judicial rules. Only the province of Quebec has a Code of Civil Procedure. The first Code of Civil Procedure was adopted together with the Civil Code in 1866 and was then amended in 1897. The current Code of Civil Procedure of 1965, like its predecessors, absorbs the main features of the French model, but at the same time it reflects the essential features of civil proceedings and the rules of evidence used in other provinces.
Labour relations and social security issues are regulated by Canadian law and collective bargaining agreements between employers and employee representatives of companies, and sometimes at the national level (for example, by railway workers’ unions). The rights of public employees to form unions and bargain collectively are recognized by the 1967 Federal Act and subsequent provincial legislation, but in some provinces they are prohibited from going on strike. A 1978 federal law allows authorities to intervene in collective bargaining conflicts. The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1986 requires employers to hire a certain percentage of women, minorities, and people with disabilities. In 1988, the Unemployment Insurance Act was amended to expand the rights of the unemployed.
Legislation provides for various scales of measures to protect the environment. In 1986, the former system of relatively small fines for industrial pollution was replaced by the introduction of criminal penalties in the form of various terms of imprisonment and large fines.