About Us

Myths & Metaphors of Private Law and Intellectual Property research project is the fruit of collaboration between two research centers in the Faculty of Law of McGill University: the Québec Research Centre of Private and Comparative Law and the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy.

Québec Research Centre of Private and Comparative Law

Founded in 1975 by Professor Paul-André Crépeau, the Québec Research Centre of Private and Comparative Law (QRCPCL) endeavours to develop and promote the civilian tradition in Canada through a philosophy of openness to the lessons to be learned from other legal traditions.

The QRCPCL brings together legal scholars and academics from Québec and abroad with a view to renewing the theoretical investigations of Québec’s fundamental private law institutions.

As a civil law system evolving in an environment otherwise largely grounded in the common law, Québec’s private law provides a living model for the fruitful coexistence of two historically distinct legal traditions. The importance of this model in our increasingly interconnected world is underlined by the fundamentally bilingual nature of Québec’s civil law.

The ambitious research program of the QRCPCL features many different axes of research, all of which underscore a dialogical understanding of local law with the global legal order.

From the Treatise of Civil Law to historical and critical editions of the Civil Code, from legal terminology projects, like the Private Law Dictionaries and Bilingual Lexicons, to transsystemic legal education, the QRCPCL aims to develop new theoretical understandings of fundamental private law.

Centre for Intellectual Property Policy

The CIPP’s mission is to advance research and policy formation of intellectual property and innovation systems.

To achieve this mission the CIPP focuses on three interconnected priority areas:

The CIPP carries out interdisciplinary research to understand the role of intellectual property policies and rules in contributing to creativity and innovation. In particular, the Centre examines if and how intellectual property contributes to broad social goals such as increased health, cultural development, access to information and economic growth.

The CIPP enhances understanding of intellectual property and innovation systems among students at McGill University at the undergraduate, graduate and executive level, as well as within the community.

The CIPP disseminates its research through workshops and conferences.