Before being a judge of the Court of Appeal of Québec from 1989 to 2009, Jean-Louis Baudouin was a professor at the Université de Montréal's faculty of law, where he taught contract law, civil liability, medical law and bioethics.
Holding a law degree from McGill University (1958), a state doctorate from the Paris faculty of law (1962) and a graduate degree in comparative law from the Faculté internationale de droit comparé in Madrid and Strasbourg (1962), he has also been a member of the Québec Bar since 1959.
Throughout his career, he has participated in numerous conferences and international conventions across the globe. He is the author of more than one hundred articles published both in Canada (The Canadian Bar Review, Revue du Barreau, Cahiers de droit, Revue Thémis, McGill Law Journal, Revue de droit de Sherbrooke, Ottawa Law Review, etc.) and abroad (Tulane Law Review, Louisiana Law Review, Revue internationale du droit comparé, Revue juridique et politique Indépendance et Coopération, Revue internationale de droit pénal, International Journal of Medicine and Law, International Journal of Bioethics, etc.).
A sought-after lecturer both in Canada and abroad, he has participated in numerous conventions, conferences, and legal assemblies. He has sat on countless medical, legal and academic committees and has organised multiple international conventions in Canada and across the globe. He has also served as a bioethics consultant for the Canadian government.
In 2006, he launched the Chaire Jean-Louis Baudouin en droit civil, endowed with a one million dollar fund, at the Université de Montréal's faculty of law. In terms of medical law and bioethics, he has also sat on multiple hospital bioethics committees, and he wrote several works for the Law Reform Commission of Canada between 1973 and 1989.
Honours and Awards
- Henri Capitant medal (1973, 1985, 2004)
- Queen's Council (1978)
- First Canadian Association of Law Teachers' Award for achievement in legal scholarship (1984)
- Québec Bar Medal (1988)
- Honorary degree from Université de Sherbrooke (1990)
- Honorary degree from Université René Descartes (Paris V) (1994)
- Honorary degree from Université Notre-Dame de la Paix, Namur, Belgique (1998)
- Honorary degree from University of Ottawa (2001)
- Recipient of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health's Yves Pelissier award (2001)
- 125th anniversary medal from the l'Université de Montréal's Faculté de droit (2004)
- Recipient of the Canadian Bar Association's Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Law, recognizing outstanding contribution to the law or legal scholarship in Canada (2004)
- Honorary degree from McGill University (2007)
- Emeritus lawyer distinction from the Québec Bar (2009)
- Honorary degree from the Université Jean Moulin 3
- Honorary degree from the Université de Lyon III (2009)
Membership/Affiliations
- President of the Québec division of the Association Henri Capitant des amis de la culture juridique française
- First vice-president of the Institut International des droits des pays d'expression française
- Academy Member, International Academy of Comparative Law
- Academy Member, Academia Puertorriqueña de jurisprudencia y legislacion de Puerto Rico, since 1993
- Member of the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice
- Member of the Académie des lettres du Québec and the Royal Society of Canada
- Member of the Association québécoise du droit comparé
- Member of the Société française de législation comparée
- Director of the Collection Minerve d'ouvrages de droit (Éditions Yvon Blais)
- Member of the Civil Law Initiative's Technical Council (Paris)
- Quebec editor of the Canadian Bar Review (1983-1989)
- Legal counsel at Geoffrion, Prud'homme (1980-1983), Aquin, Chénard (1983-1985), Leclerc, LeBel (1986-1989)
- Commissioner, then vice-chair of the Law Reform Commission of Canada (1976-1980)
- Secretary of the Comité sur les obligations of the Civil Code Revision Office (1966-1977)
- Member of the Journées Strasbourgeoises planning committee (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008)
- Guest professor at Addis Ababa University (1965), Louisiana State University (1968, 1970) Univeristé de Sherbrooke (1967, 1968), McGill University (1969, 1977), University of Warsaw (1983, 1988), the Swiss University of Fribourg (1989), Université Paris XII (1988), the University of Toronto (1988), Université Paris I (1988), the Institute of Comparative Law at the University of Genoa (Italy) (2004, 2005), and three Tokyo universities (2008)