Benoit Pelletier

Benoît Pelletier has been a member of the Quebec National Assembly since December 1998 and is the Minister for Canadian Governmental Affairs and Aboriginal Affairs.

He is a lawyer and has been a member of the Quebec Bar since 1982. He holds two doctorates in law, one from the University of Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and the other from the University of Aix-Marseille. He has taught at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa since 1990, serving as assistant dean from 1996 to 1998. In 1998, he was promoted to full professor. Since 1995, he has also been a member of the University's Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. In 1997-98, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to university teaching, he received the University of Ottawa Award for Excellence in Teaching.

From 1983 to 1990, before he began teaching at the University of Ottawa, Benoît Pelletier worked for the federal Department of Justice as a trial attorney and legal counsel. A specialist in constitutional law, he is the author of La modification constitutionnelle au Canada (constitutional amendment in Canada) published by Carswell in 1996. This 520-page work is the first treatise by a Canadian author on the constitutional amendment procedure adopted upon the patriation of Canada's Constitution in 1982. Mr. Pelletier has also published over 50 articles on constitutional law, including many on theory.

He has lectured in Canada, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, Haiti and Tunisia. He has also taught as visiting professor at various universities: Nantes in May 1993, Corsica (Pascal Paoli) from September to December 1997, Paris II (Panthéon-Assas) in January and February 1998, Paris V (René Descartes) in March 1998, and Lyon III (Jean Moulin) in April and May 1998. He is an associate member of the International Academy of Constitutional Law, which is located in Tunis.