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President's Corner

President's Message

The Little Prince

" Authority is based first of all on reason " Antoine de St-Exupéry

During his famous journey visiting different planets, the Little Prince meets a king. This king, it is said, " insisted that his authority be universally respected (…) But since he was a kindly man, all his commands were reasonable".

Law reform often reminds us of these wise words. The authority of law rests on the citizens' confidence that the commands of law are reasonable. When the rationality of law is questioned, the moral authority of law is undermined. Coercion by police or the judiciary may demand compliance with the law but ultimately imposing laws that nobody find useful, necessary or reasonable becomes difficult and very expensive.

At times, the incoherence of laws justifies questions about its rationality and pressures for law reform. "It ain't fair" is a cry that rallies citizens who get offended when situations are treated with irrationality. Therefore, minimizing law's incoherence is at the heart of law reform.

When law is obsolete, it also seems irrational and commands less authority. When legal concepts used in law no longer respond to contemporary arrangements, law's authority is undermined. That is why in most countries, there are law reform bodies that are acharged with modernizing the law.

However, debates over the rationality of law go beyond noting incoherent or obsolete provisions. Often, people debate the rationality of the law because the law does not deliver on its promises and because its effects are not what was intended. A statute is not reasonable it is incompatible with citizens' concrete needs, when it imposes burdens that are impossible to bear or when it does not produce the expected results. The duty of law reform agencies it therefore to measure the efficiency of the operation of law and their real impact on citizens.

The Law Commission of Canada is the federal law reform agency. Since the beginning of its mandate, it has been interested in the living law, the law that is lived by the citizens. We certainly need our formal laws to be written coherently but we also want a law that reaches Canadians, a law that reflects their preoccupations and values and their real needs.

The methodology adopted by the Commission is geared toward understanding better the reality of the application and evolution of law. It has adopted a multidisciplinary and consultative approach so that citizens can communicate the way they live the law and their needs. Its research program is organized in a way that reflects demands by citizens and the study of relationships that they have with each other, that is, the personal, social, economic and governance relationships that support our lives. This methodology is focused on dialogue with people who live the law and aims at ensuring that law in Canada meets the needs of society.

In our view, only a methodology focused respect for the living law, the law as lived by the people in the context of their dynamic relationships that they have can really measure the rationality of law, and, how St-Exupery says so poetically, command respect and authority.

I invite you to consult our website: Research Themes to find out more about our methodology, our projects and to communicate with us about your ideas about law reform.