Between the Ancien Régime and Liberal Modernity: Law, Justice and State Formation in colonial Quebec, 1760–1867

Abstract

AbstractThis article surveys the historiography of state formation in colonial Quebec, from the British Conquest of 1759/1760 to Canadian Confederation in 1867, focussing on law and justice. It is structured around three key themes: the Conquest as a point of rupture, with the imposition of a British colonial state and English law on top of a largely French‐origin society; the nature of the ancien‐régime state over the 80 years that followed; and the historiographical debate over the creation of a new liberal order in Canada and Quebec from the 1840s onwards. The article ends with a discussion of six factors, both local and transnational, which help account for legal change and state formation in Quebec in the period.