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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OBLIGATION n.
1.  Syn. duty[...] in its more general acceptation, the word ‘obligation’ means something that the law or morals command a person to do, a command that is made effective by the imposition of a sanction if the person fails to obey or comply. When given that reference, the word ‘obligation’ is made synonymous with the word ‘duty’” (Litvinoff, in Treatise, vol. 5, n° 1.1, pp. 1-2)Civil obligation; family obligation; juridical obligation; moral obligation. Occ. Arts. 68, 392, 522 C.C.Q.; s. 41, Interpretation Act, R.S.Q. c. I-16; s. 20, Public Curator Act, R.S.Q. c. C-81.Obs. From the Latin obligatio, from ob: around, and ligare: to be boundFr. devoir+, obligation1.2.  Juridical relationship between two persons by virtue of which one of them, the debtor, is bound towards another, the creditor, to perform a prestationThe Romanist definition [...] which understands obligations as generating a juridical link between persons that requires one of them, under compulsion of law, to act to the benefit of another, captures what for many scholars is the central feature of the law of civil obligations: legal recognition and enforcement” (Brierley & Macdonald (eds.), Quebec Civil Law, n° 402, pp. 378-379) Occ. Arts. 1371, 1372, 1373 C.C.Q.Obs. 1º An obligation may be susceptible of compulsory execution (civil obligations) or only be susceptible of voluntary performance (natural obligations)2º In principle, an obligation is temporary, transmissible and transferable3º Drawing on the writings of Pothier, article 983 of the Civil Code of Lower Canada acknowledged five sources of obligations: the contract, the quasi-contract, the delict, the quasi-delict and the sole operation of law. That classification was not explicitly retained in the Civil Code of Québec (art. 1372 C.C.Q.)4º From the point of view of the creditor, the obligation is designated as a creance or a claim; from the point of view of the debtor, it is designated as a debtSyn. juridical obligation1, perfect obligation, personal obligationSee also  contract1Fr. obligation2+, obligation juridique1, obligation parfaite, obligation personnelle.3.  Obligation from the point of view of the debtorWhether this obligation be one imposed by a law or by a contract, [...] the result, generally speaking, is the same, in the sense that the person in fault is obliged to indemnify the person aggrieved to the extent of the injury suffered” (Ross v. Dunstall (1921), 62 S.C.R. 393, p. 415, P.-B. Mignault, J.)Failure to fulfil an obligation; to meet one’s obligation; to satisfy an obligation. Occ. Arts. 697, 1206, 1362 C.C.Q.; art. 1064 C.C.L.C.; s. 11(a), Consumer Protection Act, R.S.Q. c. P-40.1.Syn. charge1, debt1, juridical duty, juridical obligation2, legal duty, liabilitySee also  personal rightFr. charge1, dette, devoir juridique, engagement, obligation3+, obligation juridique2.4.  Syn. personal right Fr. créance, dette active, droit de créance, droit personnel+, jus in personam, obligation4.
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