TY - JOUR TI - Legal Regulation of “Special Status” for Federation Subject: Legal Differentiation. Quebec Case-Study T2 - IS - KW - federalism KW - Quebec province in Canada KW - center KW - subject KW - constitutional act KW - statute KW - constitutional convention KW - competence KW - separatism KW - language KW - resolution AB - Danilov Sergey - Professor, Department of Constitutional and Municipal Law, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Doctor of Historical Sciences. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya Str., 101000, Moscow, Russian Fe­deration. E-mail: sdanilov@hse.ru.The article is devoted to general and specific qualities of the former and current status of the province of Quebec, Canada. The objectives of the research is to analyze the fundamental and political facts and processes which may be explained by the alien nature of Quebec as part of the Canadian federative state which is inhabited mainly by English-speaking people. The author has used various materials - the Canadian Constitution, laws of provinces, doctrinal works and the research of legal academics. The article shows that the problem of Quebec referred to as French-Canadian is the most crucial and challenging of the Canadian statehood. As a drawback of the constitution, its vague language has been mentioned, as well as irrelevant use of fundamental terms by the founding fathers of the federation. With their wide interpretation in Quebec, they have given the province the opportunity to require a special status within the federation since the second half of the 19th century. The controversies among the articles and other constitutional norms codifying the bases of symmetrical federalism based on the equality of rights of the provinces. The article traces intense and politically reckless attempts of Quebec political institutions to achieve sovereign rights of the province bypassing common norms of constitutional and international law norms. A special attention has been paid to the interpretation and meaning of the verdict of the Canadian Supreme courtReference re Secession of Quebec 1998, the Clarity Act, 2001, The Québécois nation motion, 2006. The author notes the exclusive status of Quebec on language, culture and social programs. AU - S. Danilov UR - https://law-journal.hse.ru/en/2012--2/55145162.html PY - 2012 SP - 99-108 VL -