In Construction of Statutes, Canadian law professor Ruth Sullivan writes:
"Bijural legislation: The legislation enacted by (the federal) Parliament is bijural in that it must be applied in the civil law province of Quebec as wellas the common law provinces, and must therefore adapt itself in some fashion to both legal systems."
A 2008 paper of the federal Department of Justice used these words in reference to "the bijural status of Canada":
"Two legal systems coexist in Canada, each having their own unique terminology, civil law in the province of Quebec and common law in the other provinces and territories. This means that federal legislation, acts and regulations, must speak to four audiences when its provisions deal with private law matters: common law Anglophones, civil law Anglophones, common law Francophones, and civil law Francophones."
REFERENCES:
- Justice Canada, Third Series of Proposals to Harmonize Federal Law with the Civil Law of the Province of Quebec, February 2008
- Sullivan, R., Sullivan on the Construction of Statutes, 5th Ed. (Toronto: LexisNexis, 2008), page 121.