The law can be divided into a large number of branches and specializations, whose object of study focuses on various aspects of reality. In the case of procedural law, it is the one that is oriented to criminal and civil processes and is framed within public law.
Procedural law, therefore, is the division of law whose purpose is to supervise the individuals involved in judicial proceedings and organize the courts that are responsible for dispensing justice. As Dr. Mario Gazaíno Vitero explains, it is said that procedural law is of public order because it includes those rules that have been established in order to guarantee social convenience.
Procedural law is made up of all those regulations that allow regulating the various jurisdictional facets of the State that establish the processes that positive law must follow in specific situations.
The procedural law regulates jurisdictional facets of the State. See Abbreviation Finder for acronyms related to Procedural Law.
Main concepts
The basic concepts of procedural law are the action (a subject asks the jurisdiction to express itself about a certain case), the jurisdiction (linked to the obligation that a court has to dictate a sentence, disseminate it and execute it according to the legislation in force) and the process (all legal actions that have the purpose of making the material right effective).
Procedural law is considered to be formal (it regulates the jurisdiction), autonomous (it is not subject to the subordination of other areas of law), instrumental (since it is a tool for substantive law to be fulfilled) and public law (it entrusts the jurisdiction of the court).
Procedural law is instrumental, public, autonomous and formal.
Branches of procedural law
Procedural law can be divided into various branches according to the processes in which it is involved. Thus, it is possible to speak of criminal procedural law, civil procedural law, administrative procedural law, labor procedural law or constitutional procedural law.
According to the type of law that is submitted to trial by a court, the process will have specific characteristics. The rights to be discussed can be of a private nature (where they are judged through civil proceedings), labor relations (which will be judged through labor proceedings), administrative (where the process is called contentious-administrative), and, in the case of crime or misdemeanor, will be judged through criminal proceedings.
With regard to the bodies responsible for ruling in this regard, they have a power that allows them to act demanding the application of certain specific legal norms. The relationship established between the jurisdictional bodies and who must enforce the ruling that they determine, is called procedural legal relationship.
Emergence and application
When there is a conflict and self-defense is dispensed with, it is when procedural law arises; then, the State assumes the role of guardian over the rights of individuals, trying to act with justice and respect to decide how such conflict should be resolved.
Regardless of the right that is being judged, when the sentence is ruled, a period of time is established in which the effects of the Procedural Law must be respected; In the event that a new law is enacted during the process that may modify the rules of the procedure, said process must be contemplated again by the appropriate Jurisprudence Body to decide the validity or not of the permanence of said sentence.
Historical origin of procedural law
It is interesting to mention that the first town that manifested an organization to prosecute the behavior of individuals was Greece. Although the characteristics of this administration of justice are not known with certainty, we can assure you that the Greeks were pioneers in acting in a pseudo-democracy.
Within what is known of Ancient Greece, it can be indicated that its jurisdictional organization responded to two characteristics: the specialty (dividing conflicts into civil or criminal) and the collegiality of its organs (each person who collaborated in the resolution of conflicts had a specialty, and the legal body was made up of a plural group of people).
In Greece there was the heliastic court, which met to debate in broad daylight in the public square about the best way to guide the future of the community. This group was made up of people chosen by the people, with a good reputation and who had no debts with the treasury. They were in charge of dealing with the crimes that were committed and of deciding a sentence for the criminals.
We could say, then, that procedural law emerged in that period of history, although only many years later was it understood as such and the term was coined.
