Due Process in Law

Abstract

This article assesses the history of the development of the concept of due process in the Anglo-American jurisprudence. The actual phrase ‘due process of law’ first appeared when the Magna Carta was issued in English in 1354 by King Edward III. The concept of due process was transformed when the American colonists adopted the as a limiting principle not only on the use of executive power, but also on the scope of the laws that could be passed. Due process protects substantive rights independently secured by positive law by requiring procedural regularity in the exercise of governmental power, and insists that procedural regularity may not be altered by the normal operations of political power. After defining the meaning of the five basic elements of the due process (the right to a hearing and a prior notification, the right to an impartial arbiter, the right to be represented by counsel, and the right to timely resolution of claims), the article discusses the development of twentieth-century due process law primarily in the United States in its three central phases—substantive, procedural, and functional due process.