Justice requires more than blind adherence to established legal rule.
It requires the recognition that law fulfills other purposes than reinforcing the state's authority and that such purposes are often historically contingent. Seen in this way, law must be conceived as a system of rules whose object is to facilitate human relations. If it fails in this task, it will cease to be obeyed and eventually lack legitimacy. The principle of federalism facilitates the pursuit of collective goals by cultural and linguistic minorities which form the majority within a particular province. This is the case in Quebec, where the majority of the population is French-speaking, and which possesses a distinct culture.