Les contrats collectifs en droit québécois
Collective contracts in Quebec law are presented as bilateral acts with the particularity that one of the cocontracting parties detains the power of binding many persons, neither parties, nor represented, nor successor, and such, without obtaining from these persons a personal consent. This particularity creates an important derogation to the relativity of contract principle, a derogation for which the rules for mandate and those of stipulation for another cannot account for. Notwithstanding the term "contract", it is tempting to doubt the true bilateral nature of these acts.  After following the evolution of the notion of the collective act, (or unilateral collective act), of which the origins emanate from Germany, then spread to Italy, and subsequently to French law, it is clear that this notion and that of the collective contract are mistakenly mingled.  In Quebec, considering that the notion of a juridical collective act is not yet part of doctrine or jurisprudence, the term collective contract seems to encompass acts, that may well be collectively formed, but that do not necessarily constitute contracts.  This thesis undertakes to adequately categorize three acts, presently assimilated by doctrine and jurisprudence as collective contracts: i) the declaration of co-ownership; ii) the Tendering Code, and iii) group insurance, by classifying them within one of the two classic juridical acts in Quebec's obligation law. To this end, a detailed analysis of the formation of each of these acts is carried out herein, exposing the various privities between the different parties concerned by each of these acts. If the reader is convinced that group insurance truly constitutes a bilateral act, the same is not so for the declaration of co-ownership and the Tendering Code, which rather seem to correspond to unilateral acts.
Assurance collective Tiers Agreement Bilateral act Collective act Contract Declaration of co-ownership Group insurance Relativity of contract Tendering code Third party Unilateral act