Pierre-Basile Mignault (September 30, 1854 – October 15, 1945) was a Canadian lawyer and

Puisne Justice Puisne judge and puisne justice () are terms for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank of a particular court. The term comes from a combination of the two French words, (since, later) and (born) which have been combined as or ; meaning ...

of the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

. Born in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

, the son of Pierre-Basile Mignault and Catherine O'Callaghan, he received a Bachelor of Civil Law degree from

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

in 1878. He was called to the Quebec Bar in 1878. He then proceeded to practice law in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. His ''Droit civil canadien'', a nine-volume work on Québec's civil law published during 1885–1916, and its relation to the French tradition, continues to be cited by the courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada. As a judge on the Supreme Court of Canada during 1918–1929, Mignault also had a key role in countering a long-standing centralising tendency in Canadian private law, and in increasing the Court's sensitivity to the subtleties of Québec's legal tradition. Mignault saw Québec private law as “surtout fille de la France coutumière” (particularly the heir of French pre-revolutionary customary law), yet also a meeting place for a diversity of philosophical and cultural approaches. He is buried in

Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery (, ) is a rural cemetery located in the borough of Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which was founded in 1854. The entrance and the grounds run along a part of Côte-des-Neiges Ro ...

. Parc Mignault in Montreal is named in his honour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mignault, Pierre-Basile Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada 1854 births 1945 deaths McGill University Faculty of Law alumni Burials at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery American emigrants to Canada

Further reading

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References