Preface/Preface.

• Author: Morgan, Erin
• Position: TRAVAUX DE L'ASSOCIATION HENRI CAPITANT--JOURNEES LOUISIANAISES

The Association Henri Capitant des amis de la culture juridique francaise held its international congress, les Journees louisianaises, from May 18th to May 23rd, 2008, in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. This event brought together civilian jurists from diverse fields under the theme "law and culture". The McGill Law Journal is pleased to publish the revised texts of the reports from Quebec that were presented there, each of which reveals distinctive aspects of Quebec's legal culture in a different area of the law.

Adrian Popovici retraces the mixed origins of Quebec's civil law and describes the influences underlying Quebec's modern legal culture in terms of its broad, defining concepts.

Ghislain Otis critically analyzes the importance of Aboriginal languages and Aboriginal legal cultures in three recent self-government agreements. He examines the scope of the legal pluralism instituted in these agreements and expresses his hope for a revitalization of Aboriginal languages, which are essential to the transmission of culture.

Benoit Moore considers the evolution of the legal conception of the family in Quebec law. Institutionalized in the Civil Code of Lower Canada, the traditional conception of the family did not withstand the breakdown of religious and social frames of reference that marked the twentieth century. The secularization of the family and religious diversity, as well as the rise of equality as a fundamental value and the expansion of individual autonomy, have redefined conjugal and filial relationships today.

Daniel Jutras examines the influence of culture on procedural law, building on the recent reform of the Code of Civil Procedure of Quebec. To this end, he discusses the decidedly North American political culture of Quebec civil procedure, the nature of professional legal culture, and the normative culture that ties procedural law to Quebec's substantive law.

Jean-Luc Bilodeau analyzes the impact of characteristic divisions in Canadian society--federalism, bijuralism, and bilingualism--upon the credit patterns, recourse to lending institutions, and propensity for bankruptcy of Canadian citizens. He compares statistics from Quebec with those from the rest of Canada and hypothesizes that the differences in behaviour can be explained by the interaction of legal, historical, and cultural motives.

At a time when cultural diversity and the richness of legal systems may appear to be menaced by the global tendency to harmonize national...