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→The doctrine of paramountcy
===The doctrine of paramountcy===
Sometimes the subjects over which each level of government has authority overlap and, according to a legal principle called the ''doctrine of paramountcy'', all laws are not created equal. Under this doctrine, federal legislation on a subject trumps any provincial legislation on the same subject. This is important because in family law both the ''[[Divorce Act]]'' and the ''[[Family Law Act]]'' deal with parenting children, child support, and spousal support. As a result, orders under the ''Divorce Act'' <span class="noglossary">will</span> usually be paramount to orders under the ''Family Law Act'' on the same subject.
It isn't ''quite'' right to say that federal legislation "trumps" provincial legislation. It's a little more complex, and this is important because the ''Divorce Act'' and the ''Family Law Act'' cover so many of the same subjects. Really, what the legal test says is that in order for the federal legislation to win, there must be a "functional incompatibility" between the provincial legislation and the federal legislation, so that it is impossible to comply with both statutes and that complying with one statute would frustrate the purpose of the other statute. Here's what the Supreme Court of Canada said in a 2007 case called ''[http://canlii.ca/t/1rmr1 Canadian Western Bank v Alberta]'', at paragraphs 69 and 75: