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Encyclopedia entry: Due Process, Procedural
- Article from:
- The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the UnitedStates
- Author:
Copyright© The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States 2005, originally published by Oxford University Press 2005. (Hide copyright information)
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Due Process, Procedural
The concept of due process derives from the Magna Carta (1215), the great charter of English liberties whereby the nobles limited the king's authority. Its phrase “law of the land” was transformed over the years to “due process of law,” a phrase included in 1692 in a Massachusetts statute. The
Fifth
Amendment of the Constitution (ratified 1791) requires that the federal government not deprive any person of “life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” The same language is included in the
Fourteenth
Amendment (ratified 1868) as a constraint on the states.
The central aim of due process doctrine is to assure ...