DUE PROCESS OF LAW, law in its regular course of administration through courts of justice. This term, due process of law, which occurs in the amendments to the Consti tution of the United States (Art. V) and in the constitutions of nearly all of the States, is con sidered by Coke as equivalent to the phrase "law of the land" (used in Magna Charta, Ch. 29), and is said by him to denote "indictment or presentment of good and lawful men." Coke Inst. 50. Due process of law includes notice, hearing and judgment. The constitutions of the various States and the Federal Constitution contain no description of those processes which it was intended to allow or forbid. As a general rule they do not even declare what principles are to be applied to ascertain whether it be due process. It is manifest that it was not left to the legislative power to enact any process which might be devised. As used in the Constitution of the United States, the article is a restraint on the legislative as well as on the executive and judicial powers of the government and cannot be so construed as to leave Congress free to make any process "due process of law" by its mere will. It has been held that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States does nothing more than declare a great common-law principle applicable to all govern ments, both State and Federal, which has existed from the time of Magna Charta. It was held by the Supreme Court of the United States in Murray v. Hoboken Co., 18 How. 272, that the
words "due process of law" were undoubtedly intended to convey the same meaning as the words "law of the land" in Magna Charta. Due process of law ordinarily implies and includes a complainant, a defendant and a judge, regular allegations, an opportunity to answer and a trial according to some settled course of ju dicial proceeding. When applied to proceedings in criminal cases, the expression "due process of law," or the "law of the land,' means that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, prop erty or privileges without indictment or present ment by "good and lawful men," selected, or ganized and qualified in accordance with some pre-existing law, and a trial by a court of jus tice, according to the regular and established course of judicial proceedings. It is to be re gretted, however, that the constitutional meaning or value of the phrase "due process of law" remains to-day without that satisfactory pre cision of definition which judicial decisions have given to nearly all the guarantees of personal rights found in the constitutions of the several States and of the United States. Consult Cooley,