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Friday, August 7, 2015

Smith on History of Intestate Succession in Quebec on SSRN

Lionel Smith has posted "Intestate Succession in Quebec" on SSRN. The essay will appear in Kenneth G C Reid, Marius J de Waal, and Reinhard Zimmermann (eds), Comparative Succession Law, volume II: Intestate Succession (Oxford University Press, 2015)

Here's the abstract:

When Quebec became part of the British Empire, its private law was the Custom of Paris. By the Quebec Act 1774, this customary law was retained with the important exception that full freedom of testation was granted. The customary law continued to apply, including for intestate succession, until 1866, long after it had ceased to operate in France. In that year the Civil Code of Lower Canada came into force; for intestate succession, a system based on that of the French Civil Code was adopted. This system was modified only slightly with the coming into force in 1994 of the Civil Code of Québec.

This paper traces the evolution of the law of intestate succession in Quebec up to the modern day, touching also on the different intestacy rules that may apply to First Nations people living in the province.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Osgoode Society legal history workshop--final fall schedule with room information



All sessions are at 6.30 p.m., in Northrop Frye 119. The Northrop Frye Building is immediately to the south of the main Victoria College Building, across from the law school. Museum subway stop, take the east exit.  Here's a map.


Wednesday October 7 – Ian Kyer: ‘The Canada Deposit Insurance Act of 1967: a Federal Response to a Constitutional Quandry.’






Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Perrault,"'Sans honte et sans regret': Les chemins de traverse entre le pénal et le psychiatrique dans les cas d’aliénation criminelle à Montréal, 1920–1950"

Isabelle Perrault has published "« Sans honte et sans regret » : Les chemins de traverse entre le pénal et le psychiatrique dans les cas d’aliénation criminelle à Montréal, 1920–1950" in Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin Canadien d'histoire de la medicine.


C’est le Dr Daniel Plouffe, psychiatre responsable des cas de transferts de femmes de la Prison des femmes Fullum à l’Hôpital Saint-Jean-de-Dieu et du traitement des hommes internés à l’Hôpital pour aliénés criminels de la Prison de Bordeaux, qui est en charge de l’évaluation des aliénés criminels entre 1920 et 1950. À l’aide des dossiers de patients internés à l’Hôpital Saint-Jean-de-Dieu, cet article propose une analyse des comportements criminels et, surtout, des indices permettant aux nouveaux experts de statuer sur l’état mental de la personne lors du crime. Assauts, vagabondage, prostitution, pyromanie, violence,et vols sont quelques-uns des comportements inscrits au dossier qui ont déclenché le processus judiciaire de mise à l’écart et, par la suite, de psychiatrisation. 
Ces dossiers serviront à illustrer les lentes mais fructueuses tentatives des médecins légistes et psychiatres qui ont exercé des pressions pour la reconnaissance de ce champ d’expertise où on entend traiter plutôt que punir les criminels mentalement dérangés.

Dr Daniel Plouffe, the psychiatrist in charge of women’s transfers from the Fullum Women Prison to Saint-Jean-de-Dieu Hospital and of men’s incarceration at Bordeaux Hospital for the Insane, was, more generally, the one who evaluated the criminally insane between 1920 and 1950. Using records of patients committed to Saint-Jean-de-Dieu Hospital, this article provides an analysis of criminal behaviour and, most importantly, of signs on which new experts could decide the mental state (mind) of a person during a crime. Assault, vagrancy, prostitution, arson, violence, and theft are some of the behaviours noted in the records that triggered the judicial process leading to the segregation of individuals and subsequently, to their receiving a psychiatric diagnosis.
These cases serve to illustrate the slow but successful attempts of forensic psychiatrists who lobbied for the recognition of this field of expertise and who intended to treat rather than punish criminals who were recognized as mentally disturbed.