The Supreme Court of Canada

Abstract

Canada was created through French, and later English colonisation imposed upon Indigenous nations in the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. Courts began in early eighteenth-century Nouveau France applying French civil law, followed by the British common law system. Canada was officially born by the British North America Act, 1867, passed by the British Parliament upon request from political leaders in four colonies. Quebec remains the only civil law jurisdiction within a common law and mostly English sea. Section 101 empowered the Canadian Parliament to establish a ‘General Court of Appeal,’ but internal debate delayed its creation until 1875. The Supreme Court of Canada (‘SCC’ or ‘Supreme Court’) has an unusual history, since its decisions were appealable to England in criminal cases until 1933 and in civil matters until 1949. Its importance grew considerably after it became the final court whose decisions are binding on all Canadian courts, tribunals, and domestic governments. Fundamental constitutional reform in 1982, including the entrenchment of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, has increased its impact. Judgments from final appellate courts in common law jurisdictions circulate quite widely among English-speaking nations, especially when dealing with challenging newer legal issues. This chapter will also describe the Supreme Court’s use of foreign and international law judgments and its relationship with foreign national and international courts.