What makes a law procedural versus substantive?
The question of whether a law is procedural or substantive is often a difficult one to resolve. The Minnesota Supreme Court has looked at several ways of distinguishing substantive laws from procedural ones and relied primarily on the following test: • Substantive laws define which acts are criminal and what the punishment is for violating them • Procedural laws regulate the steps by which the guilt or innocence of one who is accused of a crime is determined Another test used to distinguish between substantive and procedural laws, particularly outside the criminal law context, states that substantive law is that part of the law which creates, defines, and regulates rights, as opposed to . . . remedial law, which prescribes method [sic] of enforcing the rights or obtaining redress for their invasion.
