About us
Welcome to the Chevrette-Marx Lectures website!
Established in 2015, the Chevrette-Marx Lectures in constitutional law are held annually at the Université de Montréal Faculty of law in honour of two of the Faculty’s former professors. Professor François Chevrette, LL.L. ’64, taught public law from 1968 until his death in 2012. He was also Dean of the Faculty of Law from 1984 to 1988. Professor Herbert Marx, LL.L. ’67, taught constitutional law from 1969 until his election to the Québec National Assembly in 1979. He was Minister of Justice from 1985 to 1988. In 1989, Professor Marx was appointed to the Superior Court of Québec, where he served until 2007.
The purpose of the Chevrette-Marx Lectures is to present and impart original contributions to public law in a hybrid format, combining a presentation by a main speaker with a discussion between one or two commentators as well as the audience. Each lecture will focus on one of three major themes: fundamental principles, federalism and civil rights. This format draws its inspiration from professors Chevrette and Marx’s monumental work, Droit constitutionnel : notes et jurisprudence (P.U.M., 1982, 1,728 pages), which continues to be a reference in Canadian law. Moreover, just as the works of Professors Chevrette and Marx were not limited to the field of constitutional law, the Lectures will occasionally be devoted to other legal themes of general interest.
The Chevrette-Marx Lectures are held each fall in Montreal and have been made possible thanks to support from the Université de Montréal’s Herbert-Marx and François-Chevrette Funds.
The inaugural lecture was delivered by the Honourable Yves de Montigny, LL.L. ’78, LL.M. ’81, Justice of the Federal Court of Appeal, on October 15, 2015.
Apart from documenting previously held conferences, this website brings together information and material linked to the careers and works of François Chevrette and Herbert Marx, including for the first time a complete bibliography of their publications. Information about the Faculty's program in constitutional law is available on the site as well.
Many thanks to the OpenUM team and its head, our colleague Vincent Gautrais, LL.B. ’95, LL.M. ’93, LL.D. ’98, for having made this online project a reality. A particular thanks to Maya Grabianowska for her assistance in uploading and translating the content. Managing and hosting of the site is financially supported by the L.R. Wilson Chair.
We wish you a great visit and hope to see you at the next Chevrette-Marx Lecture!
Han-Ru Zhou, LL.B. ’01
Jean Leclair, LL.B. ’85, LL.M. ’90
August 2017
This content has been updated on August 28th, 2017 at 9 h 15 min.