Afin de faire état de la terminologie du droit privé québécois, le Centre Paul-André Crépeau de droit privé et comparé a lancé en 1981 le projet des Dictionnaires de droit privé et lexiques bilingues.

En exprimant le droit privé dans les langues anglaise et française, les Dictionnaires de droit privé / Private Law Dictionaries sont des outils de connaissance originaux qui tiennent compte du fait que le droit privé québécois évolue dans un cadre linguistique et juridique unique au monde. Ils constituent les seuls ouvrages de terminologie juridique pouvant prétendre refléter la spécificité bilingue et bijuridique de la culture juridique québécoise, en plus d’être un outil essentiel pour l’ensemble des juristes québécois, pour les traducteurs juridiques, pour les juristes de l’ensemble du Canada intéressés par le droit civil québécois et, enfin, pour les juristes œuvrant en droit comparé.

Cette page vous donne accès, dans leurs versions française et anglaise, aux dictionnaires suivants : le Dictionnaire de droit privé, 2ème (1991), Le Dictionnaire de droit privé — Les obligations (2003), Le dictionnaire de droit privé — Les biens (2012), Le Dictionnaire de droit privé — Les familles, 2èmeéd (2016). Un projet de Dictionnaire de droit privé — Successions est actuellement en cours, et sera progressivement ajouté à la base de données.

Afin de faciliter vos recherches, nous vous invitons à consulter la page de présentation des Dictionnaires, qui expose les principes ayant guidé la présentation des entrées et présente les différents éléments qui forment la structure des articles. La rubrique d’aide pourra également vous être utile afin de découvrir les diverses fonctionnalités du moteur de recherche.

Le Centre Paul-André Crépeau de droit privé et comparé tient à remercier le Ministère de la Justice du Canada et la Chambre des Notaires pour leur appui financier pour la conduite des projets lexicographiques ainsi que l’Association du Barreau Canadien qui contribua à la mise en ligne Dictionnaire de droit privé — Les familles, 2èmeéd (2016).

In 1981, the Paul-André Crépeau Centre of Private and Comparative Law launched its Private Law Dictionaries and Bilingual Lexicons in order to present the terminology of the Quebec private law.

By expressing the private law in the French and English languages, the Private Law Dictionaries/Dictionnaires de droit privé are original tools which take account of the unique linguistic and juridical landscape in which the Quebec private law evolves. These are the only publications of legal terminology which can claim to reflect the bilingual and bijuridical specificity of Quebec’s legal culture. They serve as an essential tool for jurists and translators in Québec, for those across Canada interested in the Québec civil law, as well as for those working in the field of comparative law.

This website gives access, in their French and English versions, to the following dictionaries : the Private Law Dictionary, 2nd ed. (1991), the Private Law Dicitonary–Obligations (2003), the Dictionary of Private Law–Property (2012), the Private Law Dictionary–Family, 2nd ed. (2016). The Private Law Dictionary-Successions is in progress, and will gradually be added to the database.

To facilitate your research, please consult the "Guide to the Use of the Dictionaries", which presents the guiding principles behind the entries and the different components of their structure. The Help Section may also be useful in understanding the search engine’s various functions.

The Paul-André Crépeau Centre for Private and Comparative Law would like to thank the Department of Justice of Canada and the Chambre des Notaires for their financial support of the dictionary projects, as well as The Canadian Bar Association, which will contribute to the online version of the Private Law Dictionary of the Family, 2nd ed. (2016).


Le projet des Dictionnaires en bref

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CAUSE n.
1.  (Obl.) Objective reason of the obligation which results from a juridical act. “Thus, in his [Domat] conception, cause could easily be thought of as an invariable abstraction, always the same for a given kind of contract” (Litvinoff, in Treatise, vol. 6, n° 213, p. 381).  Occ. Art. 1371 C.C.Q.Obs. 1º In this sense, the cause is said to be the cause of the obligation rather than cause of the contract (arts. 1371 and 1385 C.C.Q.). 2º For a given category of juridical acts, the cause of an obligation is always the same, and is thus considered objective. For example, in a bilateral contract, the cause of the obligation of one party is the prestation of the other. In a lease, the lessor’s obligation to provide for the peaceful enjoyment of the thing has as its cause the paying of the rent. Syn. abstract cause, cause of the obligation, consideration1, final cause, objective cause. See also  unjust enrichment. Fr. cause1+, cause abstraite, cause de l'obligation, cause finale, cause objective, considération1.2.  (Obl.) Subjective reason to conclude a contract. “[...] like the codal regulation of the object of a contract, subjective cause is a concept by which the licit and moral character of an agreement may be policed by courts” (Brierley & Macdonald (eds.), Quebec Civil Law, n° 439, p. 409-10).  Occ. Arts. 1385, 1410, 1411 C.C.Q.Obs. 1º Used in this sense, cause is said to be the cause of the contract rather than the cause of the obligation. The cause of the contract differs from the cause of the obligation. Far from being objective and abstract, the cause of the contract is subjective in that it differs for each contract and for each party. 2º Cause is one of the four conditions for the formation of contracts, along with capacity, consent and object (art. 1385 C.C.Q.). 3º Article 1411 C.C.Q. states that "[a] contract whose cause is prohibited by law or contrary to public order is null". It was generally recognized under the former law that the nullity of the contract whose cause is illicit could only be pronounced if the cause was known to all the parties. The issue of whether or not the law has changed remains uncertain. 4º The usefulness of the notions of object of the contract and cause of the contract is called into question by certain scholars. It is possible to argue that the notion of public order is sufficient to play the role given to both notions. Syn. cause of the contract, concrete cause, consideration2, motive, principal consideration, subjective cause. See also  contract1, illicit cause, licit cause. Fr. cause2+, cause concrète, cause du contrat, cause impulsive et déterminante, cause subjective, considération2, considération principale, mobile, motif.3.  (Obl.) Act or omission which produces the damage. “In the circumstances as revealed by the evidence, one must necessarily conclude that the appellant notary’s opinion was the direct, immediate, and logical cause of the respondents’ decision not to purchase the property” (Roberge v. Bolduc, [1991] 1 S.C.R. 374, p. 443, C. L’Heureux-Dubé, J.).  Obs. Damage may, in fact, materially result from a wide range of factors in given circumstances. In the law of civil liability, however, cause is understood to be limited to those acts or omissions which, by reason of their direct and immediate connection, have produced the damage (art. 1607 C.C.Q.). The requirement of immediate damage does not necessarily designate a cause that immediately precedes the loss in time and space, to the exclusion of any other cause. It is generally understood to refer to the relationship between the loss and the cause whereby the loss must not only be the direct consequence of the act or omission but must also be so connected thereto, but for the debtor’s default, the loss would not have occurred. See also  adequate cause, causation2, determining cause, immediate cause, material cause. Fr. cause3.
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