This essay sheds light on the fundamental role that metaphors and narratives play in shaping how we talk, think, and argue, about the Constitution. Specifically, it makes the case that Canadian constitutional law is fashioned, to a large extent, by two competing types of metaphors: dynamic and static. Each of these categories, the essay seeks to show, stands for a different conception of the Constitution and, as such, influences the types of stories we tell about it. Each sustain, as the two case studies illustrate, dominant narratives about the Constitution, narratives whose structure essentially corresponds to the archetypal birth and rescue stories. The idea behind this essay is that, insofar as narratives and metaphors influence our cognition and help us reason about ideas and concepts-a great part of our work as jurists-we would be wise to pay attention to them. iii Acknowledgments This project would not have been possible without the help of many. I am greatly indebted to my supervisor, Professor Lorraine Weinrib, for introducing me to the wonders of narrative scholarship, and for her insightful inputs, remarks, and guidance throughout the year. Her encouragement, the deep confidence and genuine interest she showed in my project, and the great care with which she read versions of this thesis, have been invaluable to me. I would like to thank my SJD advisor, Haim Abraham, whose comments during the initial stages of this process helped me clarify the goal and scope of my thesis. I am also deeply grateful to Justice Nicholas Kasirer for being a mentor, and for encouraging me to undertake graduate studies away from home. I must also thank my parents, Anne and Ronald, for having shaped my critical sense and instilled in me the love of the law. A sincere word of recognition is also due to Jean Leclair and to the late François Chevrette; all I know about constitutional law I have been lucky to learn from these outstanding teachers. Last but by no means least, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my wonderful wife, Léa, for encouraging me to pursue graduate studies, for believing that I could do this from the start, and for being there every step of the way, always.
Le présent article passe en revue les premières manifestations de l’institution de l’absence en droit romain et dans l’ancien droit français, pour ensuite retracer les origines — historiques et conceptuelles — du droit québécois de l’absence, et de détailler son évolution, du Code civil du Bas-Canada jusqu’au Code civil du Québec. Il cherche aussi à mettre en relief l’influence qu’a eue sur l’état actuel du droit québécois le traitement dans les systèmes de droit continental — napoléonien et germanique — de cette question. De plus, il entend démontrer que c’est non seulement dans l’optique de s’arrimer au développement technologique de l’époque, mais également devant le constat de l’impraticabilité de l’idée, propre au modèle napoléonien, du maintien de l’incertitude quant à la vie ou la mort de l’absent, que le législateur québécois l’a abandonnée au profit de celle, issue du droit germanique, selon laquelle sa vie est présumée jusqu’à ce qu’une preuve contraire soit suffisante. Il se questionne, ultimement, sur les développements à venir en matière d’absence en droit québécois.
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