In law, a legal term referring to the regular administration of the law wherein no person may be denied his or her legal rights.
A person’s right to be treated with fairness in any legal proceeding, one of the most basic rights of a U.S. citizen; from the phrase in the Constitution “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” Due process often includes the rights to receive adequate notice of hearings, to receive notice of allegations or charges, to have a lawyer’s counsel, to confront and cross- examine witnesses, to refuse to give self-incriminating testimony, to be presumed innocent, and to receive a jury trial. However, the precise details of what constitutes fairness in what settings, for what types of cases, and for what people is a complex matter that changes somewhat as courts rule on specific cases. Family law and many types of matters dealt with in administrative procedures have in the past often not been accorded the basic legal protection of due process. A series of cases over the years have resulted in due-process safeguards gradually being extended into some of these areas, as in relation to separation and divorce, schools, and social services, including custody and termination of parents’ rights. Even so, in some circumstances, parents or students may be adversely affected by a hearing—or even a decision without a hearing— at which they have had no opportunity to be heard and may be obliged to prove that they have been denied due process to get a new, fair hearing. Due-process hearings are common in connection with the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, when parents disagree with the individualized education program the school prepares for their child.
A fair, just method to determine a person’s rights or obligations. The law defines two kinds of due process: “procedural” due process concerns fairness in the process by which rights are decided; “substantive” due process requires that laws not be arbitrary or unfairly discriminate among classes of persons. In common usage, “due process” usually means procedural due process.
The standard or customary application of prevailing laws or rules and the protections that follow from their application.