Les liens de l’adopté en droit civil et common law

Abstract

Reforms to adoption law in Quebec, a civilian jurisdiction surrounded by the common law, prompts reflections regarding legal traditions’ expectations of law in family matters. Scholarly debate concerning two ways of recognizing the past of an adopted person – simple adoption and open adoption – proves revealing. With the aim of honouring the adopted person’s origins, civilians emphasize the importance of the legal bond more than do their common-law counterparts. This question of the significance of the legal bond raises the larger matter of the civil law’s and common law’s relations with non-law. While it seems that the civil law struggles to recognize social practices outside its legal categories, a close reading of adoption law and a minority current relating to custom enrich the account.