We explain the difference between process and procedure through examples in everyday life, in law and their similarities.
What is the difference between process and procedure?
If we look up the terms process and procedure in a dictionary, we will see that they have very similar but different meanings, even in colloquial language. The main difference between both words is that A process encompasses the successive stages that make up a phenomenon or an operation, while A procedure designates the methodology applied to do something .
It is not unusual for the difference between both terms to be confusing, or for them to be used interchangeably, as if they were synonyms. This is because they share etymology: both are forms of Latin I will proceed (“advance”, “march forward”), which at some point in the history of language were separated and began to denote different referents.
Thus, process preserved the global meaning of the march or the path (also present in the religious procession, which is a slow march through the city with cult icons in tow), while procedure focused on how said march is carried out. , that is, what is the scheme, the method according to which to proceed.
Thus, for example, if we imagine a cooking recipe, we understand as a process the global set of actions that will lead us to prepare a delicious dish, while we will call a procedure the differentiated steps that allow us to start that process.
The first has general, dynamic and managed stages, while the second involves specific, static or invariable steps, which are always part of a process. Thus, every procedure necessarily integrates a process, but Not every process implies an established procedure .
This difference is even more important in the areas of law, where process is equivalent to the jurisdictional action itself that is, to the dispute or lawsuit that the authorities of the judicial public power resolve through the application of the law.
A claim for breach of contract is a process, and as such requires compliance with a series of specific steps to bring it to completion: these steps make up the procedure. If the latter is not carried out rigorously, the entire process will be affected and flawed, and justice will not be done.
Thus, in the case of a claim for breach of contract, the different steps that justice must follow: assigning lawyers, holding a prior hearing, etc., make up the due procedure.
References
- “Etymology of Process” in the Online Spanish Etymological Dictionary.
- “Procedural Filing” in the Online Spanish Etymological Dictionary.
- “Process” in the Language Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
- “Procedure” in the Language Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
- “Concept of process and procedure” (video) at Miguel Hernández University of Elche (Spain).
- “Process and procedure” in Notes on Labor Procedural Law by Antonio Álvarez del Cuvillo, at the University of Cádiz (Spain).
- “Distinction between process and procedure” in the Judicial Branch of Michoacán (Mexico).
