Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context legal English) A legal concept where a person is ensured all legal rights when deprived of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for a given reason. 2 (context legal English) The limits of laws and legal proceedings, so as to ensure a person fairness, justice and liberty.
WordNet
n. (law) the administration of justice according to established rules and principles; based on the principle that a person cannot be deprived of life or liberty or property without appropriate legal procedures and safeguards [syn: due process of law]
Wikipedia
Due process is the legal requirement that the state must respect all legal rights that are owed to a person. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual person from it. When a government harms a person without following the exact course of the law, this constitutes a due process violation, which offends the rule of law.
Due process has also been frequently interpreted as limiting laws and legal proceedings (see substantive due process) so that judges, instead of legislators, may define and guarantee fundamental fairness, justice, and liberty. That interpretation has proven controversial. Analogous to the concepts of natural justice, and procedural justice used in various other jurisdictions, the interpretation of due process is sometimes expressed as a command that the government must not be unfair to the people or abuse them physically.
The term is not used in contemporary English law, but two similar concepts are natural justice, which generally applies only to decisions of administrative agencies and some types of private bodies like trade unions, and the British constitutional concept of the rule of law as articulated by A. V. Dicey and others. However, neither concept lines up perfectly with the American theory of due process, which, as explained below, presently contains many implied rights not found in either ancient or modern concepts of due process in England.
Due process developed from clause 39 of the Magna Carta in England. When English and American law gradually diverged, due process was not upheld in England but became incorporated in the US Constitution.
Due Process is a legal affairs television show which airs NJTV and WNET. First started in 1996, Due Process has been continually broadcasting about New Jersey's legal community. In its 19th season, Due Process is NJTV’s award-winning weekly series on law and justice issues. As part of public television, Due Process is dependent on outside support which it receives in major part from The Fund for New Jersey.
Hosted by Raymond M. Brown and Sandra King, Due Process is a half-hour show usually composed of a pre-recorded segment followed by a discussion with up to three guests. Recent issues include the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Pew Study on Prisons, the nature of corruption in New Jersey, and the strides made towards diversity in the legal profession.
A typical season of Due Process is composed of 16 episodes, although the 13th season had 18 episodes. In 14 seasons, Due Process has produced more than 225 episodes, and won fourteen Emmys and received 75 Emmy nominations. It airs on NJTV on Sundays at 9:30 am and 7:00 pm, Tuesdays at 11:30 pm, and on WNET on Saturdays at 7:00 am. Each week's episode can be viewed any time on the Due Process website.
Usage examples of "due process".
This was a communist country, where due process of law was a bourgeois concept unworthy of serious consideration, and civil rights were limited to doing what one was told.
If the other shall be as fortunate, in due process of time I shall imagine myself as blessed as the most blessed of the patriarchs.
And the Republic became an Empire, and soon Due Process and Equal Rights for All were not worshipped, and even Mammon and Power were given only lip-service, for the true god of all was now the impotent What Can I Do and his dull brother What We Did Yesterday and his ugly and vicious sister Get Them Before They Get Us.
Bastard or not, rapist or not, he was entitled to due process of law and a fair crack at defending himself.
You will work in countries where due process of law means whatever somebody wants it to mean.
It is our soldiers, our sons and daughters, who are being endangered and unjustly punished without due process of law at the hands of the German military.
But much as I hate slavery and anyone who participates in it, there's still something deep down inside me that hates the administration of 'justice' without benefit of due process.