The court system of Canada forms the country's judiciary, formally known as "The King on the Bench", which interprets the law and is made up of many courts differing in levels of legal superiority and separated by jurisdiction. Some of the courts are federal in nature, while others are provincial or territorial.
The Constitution of Canada gives the federal government the exclusive right to legislate criminal law, while the provinces have exclusive control over much of civil law. The provinces have jurisdiction over the administration of justice in their territory. Almost all cases, whether criminal or civil, are heard in provincially or territorially established courts. The quite small system of federal courts only hears cases concerned with matters which are under exclusive federal control, such as federal taxation, federal administrative agencies, intellectual property, some portions of competition law and certain aspects of national security. The federal courts also have jurisdiction over civil actions against the federal government, a jurisdiction shared with provincial and territorial courts.
The federal government appoints and pays for both the judges of the federal courts and the judges of the superior appellate and trial level courts of each province. The provincial governments are responsible for appointing judges of the lower provincial courts. Although not judicial courts themselves, administrative tribunals also feed into the provincial/territorial and federal court hierarchies. This intricate interweaving of federal and provincial powers is typical of the Canadian constitution.
Levels and branches of the court system
Generally speaking, Canada's court system is a four-level hierarchy, as shown below from highest to lowest in terms of legal authority. Each court is bound by the rulings of the courts above them, under the principle of . They are not bound by the rulings of other courts at the same level in the hierarchy.
A note on terminology
There are two terms used in describing the Canadian court structure which can be confusing, and clear definitions are useful at the outset.
Provincial courts
The first is the term "provincial court", which has two quite different meanings, depending on context. The first, and most general meaning, is that a provincial court is a court established by the Legislature of a province, under its constitutional authority over the Administration of Justice in the Province, set out in s. 92(14) of the Constitution Act, 1867. This head of power gives the Provinces the power to regulate "... the Constitution, Maintenance, and Organization of Provincial Courts, both of Civil and of Criminal Jurisdiction, and including Procedure in Civil Matters in those Courts". All courts created by a Province, from the small claims court or municipal by-law court, up to the provincial Court of Appeal, are "provincial courts" in this general sense.
However, there is a more limited meaning to the term. In most provinces, the "Provincial Court" is the term used to refer to a specific court created by the Province which is the main criminal court, having jurisdiction over most criminal offences except for the most serious ones. The Provincial Court of a particular province may also have a limited civil jurisdiction, over small claims and some family law matters. The exact scope of the jurisdiction of a Provincial Court will depend on the laws enacted by the particular province. Provincial Courts in this sense are courts of limited statutory jurisdiction, sometimes referred to as "inferior courts". As courts of limited jurisdiction, their decisions are potentially subject to judicial review by the superior courts via the prerogative writs, but in most cases there are now well-established statutory rights of appeal instead.
To distinguish between the two meanings of the term, capitalization is used. A reference to a "provincial court" normally is a reference to the broad meaning of the term, any court created by the Province. A reference to "Provincial Court" normally is referring to the specific court of limited statutory jurisdiction, created by the Province. The term "Provincial Court" is used in the name of each such court, except for those of Alberta (Alberta Court of Justice), Ontario (Ontario Court of Justice), and Quebec (Court of Quebec). The Northwest Territories and Yukon each possess an analogous Territorial Court, while the Nunavut Court of Justice is akin to a combined superior court and territorial court.
Superior courts
The second is the term "superior courts". This term also has two different meanings, one general and one specific.
