Mr. Justice Y.-M. Morissette holds a B.A. (Political Science) from the Universit茅 du Qu茅bec 脿 Montr茅al, an LL.L (with distinction) from the Universit茅 de Montr茅al and a D.Phil. from Oxford University (1978). He was appointed assistant professor at the Faculty of Law at McGill University in 1977. He was later named associate professor (1981) and full professor (1991). He was invited as a lecturer or visiting professor to Canada, the United States, France, Vietnam and the Popular Republic of China.
He served as Dean of the Faculty of Law, McGill University from 1989 until 1994. In 2002, he was named the Director of the Institute of Comparative Law, McGill University as well as the Wainwright Professor of Civil Law. That same year, he was appointed to the Court of Appeal of Quebec.
Justice Morissette made several contributions to the legal literature. Among his books are La transparence dans le syst猫me judiciaire (1994) of which he was the editor, and Le Renvoi sur la s茅cession du Qu茅bec 鈥� Bilan et perspectives (2001). In 2000, he published with the Presses Universitaires de France translations into French of several texts by Ronald Coase, including 芦The Problem of Social Cost禄. 芦Canada as a post-Modern Kritarchy禄 (1998), 芦Deux ou trois choses que je sais d鈥檈lle (la rationalit茅 juridique)禄 (2000), and 芦Abus de droit, qu茅rulence et partie non repr茅sent茅es禄 (2004) are but a few of his several articles.
Prior to his appointment to the Court of Appeal, Justice Morissette served as the vice president of the Fondation du Barreau du Qu茅bec (1992-1998) and chaired its committee on the humanization of family law (1995-1998). He also acted as president of the Association des professeurs de droit du Qu茅bec (1985-1986).
He received many awards for his accomplishments, including a Rhodes Scholarship in 1973 and the M茅daille 脡douard-Montpetit presented by the Fondation 脡douard-Montpetit in 1994.
On October 4, 2012, the Hon. Yves-Marie Morissette, Justice of the Quebec Court of Appeal, gave the 2012 Wainwright Lecture on the subject of "Aspects historiques et analytiques de l'appel en mati猫re civile."