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 Canadian constitution gives the federal govern-
ment the exclusive right to legislate criminal law while
the provinces have exclusive control over civil law. The
provinces have jurisdiction over the administration of
justice in their territory. Almost all cases, whether crim-
inal or civil, start in provincial courts and may be even-
tually appealed to higher level courts. The quite small
system of federal courts only hear cases concerned with
matters which are under exclusive federal control, such
as immigration. The federal government appoints and
pays for both the judges of the federal courts and the
judges of the superior-level court of each province. The
provincial governments are responsible for appointing
judges of the lower provincial ("inferior-level") courts.
This intricate interweaving of federal and provincial
powers is typical of the Canadian constitution.
Outline of the Court system
Very generally speaking, Canada’s court system is a
four-level hierarchy as shown below from highest to
lowest in terms of legal authority. Each court is bound
by the rulings of the courts above them; however, they
are generally not bound by their own past rulings or the
rulings of other courts at the same level in the
hierarchy.
Canadian court system (Source Canadian Department of
Justice)
Supreme Court of Canada
Although created by an Act of the Parliament of Canada
in 1875, its decisions could be reviewed by the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council until 1949 when the Su-
preme Court of Canada truly became the final and
highest court in the country. The court currently
consists of nine justices, which include the Chief Justice
of Canada, and its duties include hearing appeals of de-
cisions from the appellate courts (to be discussed next)
and, on occasion, delivering references (i.e