Bilingual legal resources from Quebec.

• Author: Bugyiova, Adriana

Quebec's legal resources have not always been readily available to unilingual Canadian users because of the language barrier. Lately, however, many bilingual sites have been appearing on the Internet. A selection of these will be presented here. Before introducing these resources to the reader, note that even though these sites try to give the most information in both official languages, some documents or links are still available in French only. Even so, all of these websites are a valuable source of information for everyone looking for legal resources from and about this province.

A good starting point would be the website of the Department of Justice, Quebec/Ministere de la Justice, Quebec www.justice.gouv.qc.ca/anglais/index-a.htm. Besides general information about the Department, this site offers lists of agencies, courts, and services. Furthermore, publications of the Department of Justice and a link to the Statutes and Regulations of Quebec make this site very useful. A search engine helps to browse through the site, though, as already mentioned above, some results may be in French only.

One of the best known websites for legal resources in Quebec is the Centre for Research in Public Law, University of Montreal/Centre de recherche en droit public, Universite de Montreal www.droit.umontreal.ca/en/index.html. The CRDP (Centre for Research in Public Law) lists, among other resources, the Faculty of Law, ATRIUM Library (University of Montreal's on-line library catalogue), CRDP Research Centre and legal documents, the Civil Code of Quebec, and the Quebec Charter of Personal Rights and Freedoms (which will be available soon in English). The CRDP also publishes the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada and of the Human Rights Tribunal of Quebec on the Internet. The Human Rights Tribunal is the first Quebec court accessible on the Internet.

The Civil Code of Quebec/Code civil du Quebec, can be accessed directly through the following URL's: www.droit.umontreal.ca/doc/ccq/en/ or www.droit.umontreal.ca/doc/ccq/fr. Both links take the user to the search engine for the English or French version of the Civil Code, allowing immediate use after entering a key-word. The text of the search results is entirely in English or in French, depending on the previous choice of language. Following the search engine, all sections of the Civil Code are listed and linked to relevant html pages.

Another direct address to a Quebec legal resource is the link to...