Bill S-11: Federal Law–Civil Law Harmonization Act, No. 4

On October 26, 2022, the Government Representative in the Senate, Senator Marc Gold, introduced a bill to improve access to justice for all Canadians by continuing to harmonize federal laws, in both civil law and common law legal traditions, in English and in French.

As part of a process known as harmonization, the bill ensures that each official language version of federal laws take into account the private law of the provinces and territories, in particular the civil law of Québec.

This fourth bill in a series of harmonization bills would amend 51 federal statutes that fall under the responsibility of nine federal Departments.

Parliament adopted the first three harmonization bills in 2001, 2004 and 2011.

More than 75% of the world’s economies belong to either a common law or a civil law tradition. Internationally, Canada is a leader in bijural and bilingual legislation.