Canadian law The legal system of Canada is pluralist: its foundations lie in the English common law system (inherited from its period as a colony of the British Empire), the French civil law system (inherited from its French Empire past), and Indigenous ...

, a real and substantial connection or the real and substantial connection test is a legal principle used to determine whether a subject matter falls within a jurisdiction. The phrase was first adopted in Canada in 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 ...

decision of
Libman v. The Queen
' (1985). It is used in several circumstances in matters of

conflict of laws Conflict of laws (also called private international law) is the set of rules or laws a jurisdiction applies to a Legal case, case, Transactional law, transaction, or other occurrence that has connections to more than one jurisdiction."Conflict o ...

Enforcement of foreign judgments

The test is primarily used to determine whether a Canadian court will recognize a foreign judgment where there was service ex juris. Courts will usually recognize a judgment from a foreign province or nation where the claimant shows that there is a real and substantial connection between the subject matter of the litigation or the damages suffered and the jurisdiction issuing the judgment. The foreign judgment must be final and the foreign court no longer has any power to change or rescind it.

Jurisdiction

When a claimant wishes to bring an action to a Canadian court, the Court must be satisfied that it has jurisdiction over the matter. Jurisdiction in personam is determined using the real and substantial connection test. In ''

SOCAN v. CAIP ''Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada v. Canadian Ass'n of Internet Providers'' 2 S.C.R. 427, - also known as the Tariff 22 case - is a leading decision by the Supreme Court of Canada on Internet service provider (ISP) li ...

'' (2004), the Supreme Court of Canada applied the R&S connection test to determine the location of a breach of copyright in the context of peer to peer downloading. In ''

Club Resorts Ltd v Van Breda ''Club Resorts Ltd v Van Breda'', 2012 SCC 17, is a decision of the Supreme Court of Canada that has brought greater certainty to the question of a real and substantial connection in the assumption of civil jurisdiction by Canadian courts in mat ...

'' (2012), the Supreme Court applied the test to determine civil jurisdiction in the face of a

. Law of Canada Canadian conflict of laws case law {{canada-law-stub