2004-2005 – Mtre Paul-A. Crépeau, C.C., O.Q., c.r.
The Medal of the Bar of Montréal was presented to Mtre Paul-André Crépeau, emeritus professor in the Faculty of Law of McGill University and spiritual father of the new Civil Code of Québec.
A philosophy graduate of Ottawa University, Mtre Crépeau also earned a law degree from the Université de Montréal and a Bachelor of Civil Law from Oxford University. He then continued his education at the Université de Paris, where his doctoral thesis earned him the Prix Robert-Dennery, and in Strasbourg, where he earned an advanced degree in comparative law from the International Faculty of Comparative Law. Admitted to the Bar of Quebec in 1950, he was first a professor at the Faculty of Law of the Université de Montréal from 1955 to 1959, and then joined the McGill University Faculty of Law, where he held the Arnold-Wainwright Chair in Civil Law, from 1976 to 1994.
In 1965, he was made president of the Civil Code Revision Office charged with the difficult task of harmonizing the Civil Code of Lower Canada with contemporary values.
In this year of the bicentenary of the Civil Code of France and the 10th anniversary of the Civil Code of Québec, we could not fail to honour the inestimable contribution of Mtre Crépeau to the evolution of civil law. That is why the Bâtonnier of Montréal is proud to pay tribute, on behalf of all members, to a brilliant career dedicated to the cause of justice by presenting this eminent jurist of world-wide renown with the highest distinction of the Bar of Montréal.