Substantive law is the set of
laws that governs how members of a
society
A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...
are to behave.
[Substantive Law vs. Procedural Law: Definitions and Differences, Study.com]
/ref> It is contrasted with procedural law
Procedural law, adjective law, in some jurisdictions referred to as remedial law, or rules of court, comprises the rules by which a court hears and determines what happens in civil procedure, civil, lawsuit, criminal procedure, criminal or admini ...
, which is the set of procedures for making, administering, and enforcing substantive law.right
Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...
s and responsibilities in civil law, and crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...
s and punishment
Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon an individual or group, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a deterrent to a particular action or beh ...
s in criminal law
Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It proscribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and Well-being, welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal l ...
,precedent
Precedent is a judicial decision that serves as an authority for courts when deciding subsequent identical or similar cases. Fundamental to common law legal systems, precedent operates under the principle of ''stare decisis'' ("to stand by thin ...
in common law
Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...
. Substantive laws, which govern outcomes, are contrasted with procedural law
Procedural law, adjective law, in some jurisdictions referred to as remedial law, or rules of court, comprises the rules by which a court hears and determines what happens in civil procedure, civil, lawsuit, criminal procedure, criminal or admini ...
s, which govern procedure.
Henry Sumner Maine said of early law, "So great is the ascendency of the Law of Actions in the infancy of Courts of Justice, that substantive law has at first the look of being gradually secreted in the interstices of procedure; and the early lawyer can only see the law through the envelope of its technical forms."[Henry Sumner Maine. On Early Law and Custom. New Edition. John Murray. Albemarle Street, London. 1890]
Page 389
See also
* Procedural law
Procedural law, adjective law, in some jurisdictions referred to as remedial law, or rules of court, comprises the rules by which a court hears and determines what happens in civil procedure, civil, lawsuit, criminal procedure, criminal or admini ...
* Substantive rights
References
Sources
*Glanville Williams. "Substantive and Adjectival Law". Learning the Law. Eleventh Edition. Stevens and Sons. London. 1982. Pages 19 to 23.
*John W Salmond. "Substantive Law and the Law of Procedure". The First Principles of Jurisprudence. Stevens & Haynes. Bell Yard, Temple Bar, London. 1893. Page
215
to 218.
*Walter Denton Smith. A Manual of Elementary Law. West Publishing Co. St Paul, Minn. 1894. Page
110
to 116. Part 2 (The Substantive Law). Pages 123 to 279.
*"Substantive and Adjective Law" (1881) 16 The Law Journa
441
(1 October 1881)
*J Newton Fiero, "The Relation of Procedure to the Substantive Law", Law Pamph. Vol 202. (1904
2
Delta Chi Quarterly 5 (January 1904).
*Clark , "The Handmaid of Justice" (1938) 23 Washington University Law Quarterly 297
Reprint, 1965
*Abraham Lawrence Sainer. The Substantive Law of New York. Substantive & Adjective Law Publishers. Eighteenth Edition. 1967.
*Whitely Stokes (ed). The Anglo-Indian Codes. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1887
Volume 1 (Substantive Law)
Common law legal terminology
American legal terminology
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