Volume 1, Draft Civil Code - Digital exhibitions & collections - McGill ...

XXVII
by the prevailing trends of contemporary thought. Secondly,
there is that body of so-called "statutory" legislation which
discloses the existence of a will to adapt to changing circumstances,
but which is too often set forth in an alien form and in
language that is barbaric. Finally, there is the jurisprudence
that sought to render justice and equity, but which has been
torn between the attractions of opposite poles.
It can be readily appreciated from the foregoing that an
extensive reform was necessary to restore to the Civil Code its
primary function: that of governing relations between citizens
in accordance with the norms, concepts and techniques of our
time. In short, the Civil Code had to be made to reflect the
society of Quebec in the latter part of the twentieth century.
Thus the task of revision could not be approached in the
same spirit as that which guided the first codification. In
comparison with what was done a little more than a century
ago, it seemed to us that the situation called for a complete
reversal in the objectives to be achieved. The obsolescence of
the Civil Code required that priority be given to reforming the
institutions of the Civil Law, and that there be undertaken, in
the light of experience and of comparative law, a systematic
examination of the entire Code, with a view to removing the
traces of a vanished past and to bringing the law into harmony
with contemporary reality.
To be sure, this rethinking of the fundamental principles
of the Code led to changes being proposed in the traditional
rules of the Civil Law that are at times profound. Despite this,
we believe that we have not broken with our civilian heritage
(4). For, in accordance with the felicitous formulation of our
colleague Professor Andre Morel: "Innovation is not synonymous
with treason, nor does faithfulness rule out change".
The Civil Law is not simply a collection of rules drawn from
Roman, ecclesiastical or customary law, and handed down to
us in a solidified form. The Civil Law, as it was so aptly