Originally from International Arbitration Law and Practice, Third Edition

27.1. Notion of Due Process

The term “due process” is a modern translation of the concept of natural justice.

Natural justice itself is a notion to which common law systems have been traditionally hostile. In Norwest Holst1 Overod L.J. expressed the view that the qualification of “natural” adds nothing to justice “except perhaps a hint of nostalgia.”

However, even those who do not accept the notion of natural justice cannot deny that common law frequently refers to “universal justice,” “substantial justice,” “the essence of justice,” and similar terms. This has brought De Smith, Woolf and Jowell2 to assert, as to natural justice, that

“certainly it did exist in English law.”

In Ridge v. Baldwin,3 Lord Reid criticised the view that “natural justice is so vague as to be practically meaningless.”

He maintained that despite

“[t]he perennial fallacy that because something cannot be cut and dried or nicely weighed and measured, therefore it does not exist,”