The constitution of Quebec comprises a set of legal rules which fall in either one of the follow categories:

• The provisions of the Constitution Act, 1867
  Constitution Act, 1867
  The Constitution Act, 1867 , is a major part of Canada's Constitution. The Act created a federal dominion and defines much of the operation of the Government of Canada, including its federal structure, the House of Commons, the Senate, the justice system, and the taxation system...
  
  pertaining to the provinces of Canada
  Canada
  Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
  
   in general and Quebec
  Quebec
  Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
  
   in particular;
• The organic law
  Organic law
  An organic or fundamental law is a law or system of laws which forms the foundation of a government, corporation or other organization's body of rules. A constitution is a particular form of organic law for a sovereign state....
  
  s relative to the distribution of powers of Quebec and the individual rights of persons. These are composed of some fifteen laws, the main ones being An Act respecting the National Assembly, the Executive Power Act, the Election Act, the Referendum Act, the Charter of human rights and freedoms
  Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms
  The Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms is a statutory bill of rights and human rights code passed by the National Assembly of Quebec on June 27, 1975...
  
  , the Charter of the French language
  Charter of the French Language
  The Charter of the French Language , also known as Bill 101 and Loi 101, is a law in the province of Quebec in Canada defining French, the language of the majority of the population, as the only official language of Quebec, and framing fundamental language rights for everyone in the province...
  
  , etc.;
• Most of the constitutional convention
  Constitutional convention (political custom)
  A constitutional convention is an informal and uncodified procedural agreement that is followed by the institutions of a state. In some states, notably those Commonwealth of Nations states that follow the Westminster system and whose political systems derive from British constitutional law, most...
  
  s concerned with the Crown of Canada, the Executive and the Parliament;
• The common law
  Common law
  Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
  
  rules on the royal prerogative
  Royal Prerogative
  The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege, and immunity, recognized in common law and, sometimes, in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy as belonging to the sovereign alone. It is the means by which some of the executive powers of government, possessed by and...
  
   exercised by the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec
  Lieutenant Governor of Quebec
  The Lieutenant Governor of Quebec : Lieutenant-gouverneur du Québec, or : Lieutenant-gouverneure du Québec) is the viceregal representative in Quebec of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who operates distinctly within the province but is also shared equally with the ten other jurisdictions...
  
  ;
• The case law
  Case law
  In law, case law is the set of reported judicial decisions of selected appellate courts and other courts of first instance which make new interpretations of the law and, therefore, can be cited as precedents in a process known as stare decisis...
  
   of the courts of Quebec and the federal courts of Canada
  Court system of Canada
  The court system of Canada is made up of many courts differing in levels of legal superiority and separated by jurisdiction. Some of the courts are federal in nature while others are provincial or territorial....
  
  ;

The Parliament of Quebec has the power to modify certain parts of Quebec's provincial constitution, while certain other parts can only be modified by going through the process of amending the Constitution of Canada

Constitution of Canada

The Constitution of Canada is the supreme law in Canada; the country's constitution is an amalgamation of codified acts and uncodified traditions and conventions. It outlines Canada's system of government, as well as the civil rights of all Canadian citizens and those in Canada...

.

Fundamental text

Quebec has on several occasions discussed the possibility of gathering the scattered elements making up its constitution into a single text of law, but never went forward. During the 1969 National assizes of the Estates General of French Canada

Estates General of French Canada

The Estates General of French Canada were a series of three assizes held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada between 1966 and 1969. Organized by the Ligue d'action nationale and coordinated by the Fédération des Sociétés Saint-Jean-Baptistes du Québec , the stated objective of these Estates General was to...

, the Quebec delegates adopted a resolution proposing that "Quebecers give themselves a written constitution".

More recently, in his speech before the 2007 congress of the Association québécoise de droit constitutionnel, former Liberal

Parti libéral du Québec

The Quebec Liberal Party is a centre-right political party in Quebec. It has been independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada since 1955....

 minister of Canadian Intergovernmental Affairs Benoît Pelletier

Benoît Pelletier

Benoît Pelletier is lawyer, academic, and politician in the Canadian province of Quebec. He was a Liberal member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1998 to 2008 and was a prominent cabinet minister in the government of Jean Charest...

 stated:

"One of the first questions to answer naturally pertains to the content of a future fundamental text of law which Quebec could adopt. In 2001, the committee I presided listed some possible elements for a consolidation of the fundamental rules governing Quebec. Generally speaking, our committee suggested that such a document could contain all the elements, currently dispersed, which form the material constitution of Quebec."

This "material constitution" could include, according to Pelletier :

• the set of constitutional and legislative provisions relative to the organization of the National Assembly and the government of Quebec contained in section 58 to 90 of the Constitution Act, 1867, in the National Assembly Act and the Executive Act.
• the Charter of human rights and freedoms;
• the Charter of the French language;
• the Act respecting the ministère des Relations internationales;
• the Electoral Act and the Referendum Act;
• some elements of the Act respecting the exercise of the fundamental rights and prerogatives of the Québec people and the Québec State;
• some motions and declarations adopted by the National Assembly which pertain to fundamental questions, such as the recognition of the rights of the Aboriginal peoples in Quebec
  Aboriginal peoples in Quebec
  Aboriginal peoples in Quebec total 11 distinct nations. The 10 Amerindian nations and the Inuit nations number 71,415 people and account for approximately 1% of the total population of Quebec, Canada.-Inuit:...
  
  .

On October 18, 2007, constitutional law professor and Parti Québécois

Parti Québécois

The Parti Québécois is a centre-left political party that advocates national sovereignty for the province of Quebec and secession from Canada. The Party traditionally has support from the labour movement. Unlike many other social-democratic parties, its ties with the labour movement are informal...

 opposition MNA

MNA

MNA is a three letter acronym that can mean:* Member of the National Assembly of Quebec* Member of National Assembly of Pakistan* Merpati Nusantara Airlines, an Indonesian airlines* Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad...

 Daniel Turp

Daniel Turp

Daniel Turp is a politician in Quebec, Canada. He has served as a Bloc Québécois Member of Parliament and as a Parti Québécois member of the Quebec National Assembly .- Biography :...

introduced Bill 196, a proposed Quebec Constitution, into the National Assembly. The bill did not pass the first reading.

External links

Association québécoise de droit constitutionnel