Substantive law refers to all categories of public and private law, including the law on contracts, real property, torts and criminal law. Law Governing the Original Rights and Obligations of Individuals. Substantive law can derive from common law, statutes, or a constitution. For example, a claim for recovery for breach of contract or negligence or fraud would be a substantive common law right.
A state or federal law that gives an employee the right to sue for employment discrimination would also create a substantive right. Wilson (194) illustrates how courts could address the question of whether a law is substantive. The Supreme Court, in ruling that the order for a party to undergo a medical examination was a procedural rather than a substantive matter, highlighted the fact that there was no such substantive right in common law and that no such law affects the matter. Procedural law is the law that establishes the rules of the courts of law, which establishes the steps that must be followed to prosecute or defend your case.
Like substantive law, procedural law is used in both civil and criminal cases, at the local, state and federal levels. Substantive law is the substance of what a lawyer will argue before the judge and jury. Procedural laws set out the manner and methods you will use to bring those substantive laws before the court. An example of substantive law is how degrees of murder are defined.
Depending on the circumstances and whether the killer intended to commit the crime, the same act of homicide may fall under different levels of punishment. This is defined in the statute and is substantive law. Procedural law, on the other hand, dictates how substantive law is administered or carried out. Procedural law, a law that prescribes the procedures and methods for enforcing rights and duties and for obtaining redress (for example, it is distinguished from substantive law (that is, procedural law is a set of forms established to conduct a trial and regulate the events that precede and follow it.
It prescribes rules regarding jurisdiction, pleading and practice, jury selection, evidence, appeal, enforcement of judgments, attorney representation, costs, registration (for example, to determine if a law is substantive, federal courts may consider whether the law has the potential to determine the outcome of the litigation. In the United States, substantive law comes from state legislatures and Common Law, or law based on social mores and enforced by the courts. Substantive civil laws provide the substance of a very wide range of laws, providing definitions and regulations on topics ranging from property infringement to child custody and many other areas of law. Failure to ensure that both tort claims and contracts are governed by the same law creates the same uncertainty that the agreement was designed to avoid.
Therefore, procedural laws only tell us how the legal process will be executed, whereas substantive laws have the power to offer a legal solution. Substantive law is a statutory law that deals with the legal relationship between individuals or the people and the state. Make a chart or other type of graphic organizer that explains how substantive law and procedural law work together in a criminal or civil case. While most substantive law is set out in statutes, procedural laws are generally set out in the Rules, such as the Rules of Civil Procedure or the Rules of Criminal Procedure.
In the United States, substantive law has been largely adapted from English Common Law, but procedural laws have been developed from the rights set forth in the Constitution. During the 20th century, substantive laws changed and grew rapidly as Congress and state legislatures moved to unify and modernize many Common Law principles. Substantive law is the law that establishes the right in rem being claimed, or the actual crime to be prosecuted. .
