Due Process: Definition


The term “Due Process” generally refers to regularity, fairness, equality, and degree of justice in both procedure and outcome.



“The provision [due process clause] is designed to exclude oppression and arbitrary power from every branch of government.”

Dupuy v. Tedora, 15 So.2d 886, 890, 204 La. 560 (1943).

 

“Due process is, perhaps, the least frozen concept of our law – the least confined to history and the most absorptive of powerful social standards of a progressive society.”

Felix Frankfurter in Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 20-21 (1956).

 

“Due Process of law implies the right of the person affected thereby to be present before the tribunal which pronounces judgment upon the question of life, liberty, or property, in its most comprehensive sense; to be heard, by testimony or otherwise, and to have the right of controverting, by proof, every material fact which bears on the question of right in the matter involved. If any question of fact or liability be conclusively presumed against him, this is not due process of law.”

Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Edition, page 500.

 

(n) ...a fundamental principle of fairness in all legal matters, both civil and criminal, especially in the courts. All legal procedures set by statute and court practice, including notice of rights, must be followed for each individual so that no prejudicial or unequal treatment will result. While somewhat indefinite, the term can be gauged by its aim to safeguard both private and public rights against unfairness. The universal guarantee of due process is in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides “No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” and is applied to all states by the 14th Amendment. From this basic principle flows many legal decisions determining both procedural and substantive rights.

The People's Law Dictionary