Historically, the law knew but substantive law, matters of procedure left to the whim of the presiding judicial officer. But over time, the courts developed rules of evidence and of procedure, which can be grouped into the term procedural law (also known as adjective law), mostly related to fairness and transparency of process.
In Wing Construction Ltd., Justice Scott adopted these words:
"While the distinction between substance and procedure is not always easy to draw, it is well recognized nonetheless.
"The function of substantive law is to define, create or confer substantive legal rights or legal status or to impose and define the nature and extent of legal duties.... ;
"The function of practice and procedure is to provide the machinery or the manner in which legal rights or status and legal duties may be enforced or recognised by a court of law or other recognised or properly constituted tribunal."
In Sutt, a family law case, Justice Schroeder wrote:
"It is vitally important to keep in mind the essential distinction between substantive and procedural law.
"Substantive law creates rights and obligations and is concerned with the ends which the administration of justice seeks to attain....
"(P)rocedural law is the vehicle providing the means and instruments by which those ends are attained. It regulates the conduct of Courts and litigants in respect of the litigation itself whereas substantive law determines their conduct and relations in respect of the matters litigated."
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