The history of the establisment of Canada as a sovereign state is inseparably linked with the history of the English (later British) colonial empire. Initially land amounting then to Canada, are peripheral areas of the continental possessions of the British Crown in North America. First of all, they include the possession of Hudson´s Bay, Nova Scotia peninsula and the island of Newfoundland. A stronghold of the British presence in the New World colonies were New England, which followed the metropolis actively at odds with the neighboring colonies of France. The long period of Anglo-French wars culminated in the defeat of France and inclusion of its holdings (Louisiana, New France) to the British colonial empire. The territory of the future of Canada became part of a vast political and legal space, which some researchers call the British-American colonial empire. On the socio-economic point of view nothing has changed - these lands were still underdeveloped periphery of the colonies of New England. There had no prerequisites to the formation here of their own institutions of statehood. In the course of the war for the independence of the inhabitants of the colony of Quebec (the former New France), the peninsula of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, for various reasons did not support the rebellious colonies, so many supporters of the unity of the British Empire (the so-called loyalists) moved to these areas. This led to the formation of a number of new colonies, such as Upper Canada, Nyubransuik, Prince Edward Island. Together, they accounted for British North America - in contrast to the United States. It is important to emphasize that even in the middle of the XIX century British North America remained a conglomerate of disparate, sparsely populated, economically underdeveloped areas, both in the immediate possession of the British Crown, and under the control of private companies. Their transformation into a self-governing federation certainly reflected the interests of the nascent trade and economic elite of these colonies. However, this was no less exposed to "US factor" and the liberal-democratic changes that took place in the metropolis itself. Exploring the complex of concrete historical factors that determine the character of the process of establishing Canada as a sovereign state, the author of this article analyzes the formal and legal aspects of the system of power and administration, established under the British colonial empire, as well as the key points of the doctrine of English law, refers to the institution of the Crown, Parliament and the status of imperial colonial government. Emphasized is the idea that the evolution of Canada from the set of "royal" to the self-governing colonies of the federation in the status of dominion and then gaining the status of the kingdom carried out on the basis of gradual development of constitutional conventions of political practice that leaves open to interpretation the question of when exactly Canada acquired the status of a sovereign state.

A distinctive feature of modern Canada is the dualism of its legal system. This means that in the country there are two systems of law - continental (Roman-German) and Anglo-Saxon (precedent). Each of these systems differ in their approaches to the understanding of law and justice implementation. However, the main difference is due to the fact that each of these systems relies on its own sources of law. If the basis of the criminal and private law in general, and the federation of nine provinces in particular is common (case) law of England, in the province of Quebec are used English (basically) criminal law and French civil law in its origin. Historically, this was due to the fact that at the time of the conquest of the colony of New France (now Quebec) in the XVIII century it had a relatively developed legal system, including the system of administration of justice. At the heart of the local sources of law were kutyums of Paris, supplementing ordinances of the French kings. Inclusion of New France in the possession of the English Crown was for the new authorities a precedent - the first time in the history of the British colonial empire it acquired a part of the territory with a Christian population and European law. In fact, the British colonial authorities had to make a choice, which was to determine the vector of further legal development of not only the newly conquered colony, but the whole of British North America. According to the rules of English case law the medieval English monarch (as sovereign) could either admit the law to of its new ownershipin force at the time of the conquest, or introduce there English law in force at the time. In view of the prevailing circumstances of the specific historical issue of the replacement of French law (including sources and the administration of justice) in English it turned out to be extremely difficult from the socio-political and a formal legal point of view. This article analyzes the problems encountered during the initial stage of the legal system of the British colony of Quebec and, in particular, of the sources of its territorial law.