The Division of Law: Public Substantive Law

Law is divided into two primary components. These components are substantive law and procedural law. Essentially, substantive law contains the rights and obligations a citizen has in society. If a substantive law is broken, then the procedural law wills shows the steps a citizen can do to protect his rights. Every member of society is subject to substantive law; however, there is an exception. Diplomats, abroad from other countries, do not follow our substantive laws. They have a certain level of immunity. Since they are the people that carry out the actions of governments from other countries, they do not follow by our laws. Instead, they follow the laws they have in their hometown while they live in our country.

Substantive law is composed of two main parts which are public and private law. Each of these two parts are broken down further into subcategories that make up public and private laws. These subcategories will be described briefly. Firstly, we will be talking about public law. Generally, public law dictates the relationship between governments and the people. No one (except diplomats) are above public law; they apply to all members of society. The subcategories of public law are criminal, constitutional, and administrative law.

Criminal laws are passed by Parliament. As mentioned in the Law Formation article, a bill is introduced by a Cabinet minister, which if approved, will become into a law. Specifically, these laws are crimes against society and are found in the Criminal Code. Examples of criminal laws are murder, kidnapping, battery, theft, and property damage.

Constitutional law solely regard the government and how their powers and divided. We have already touched base on the division of governmental powers previously. The Canadian government is comprised of the federal, provincial, and territorial (municipal) governments. The division of power between these three parts of government is written down and outlined in constitutional law section.

Administrative law essentially deals with the relationship between government controlled agencies and members of society. Average citizens are impacted by administrative law and the decisions of government controlled agencies. For example, it is a law that you are required to have a fishing license before you can actually go out and fish. Government agencies will provide people with the fishing licenses so that they can legally fish.

As you can clearly see, laws are no “walk in the park”. They are extremely complicated and have evolved over thousands of years; they obviously weren’t made up overnight. We need to respect laws and do our best, as citizens, to help enforce them. They help our society to function smoothly and with stability, which is why we need to be thoroughly educated on the subject.