substantive right

American  

noun

1. a right, as life, liberty, or property, recognized for its own sake and as part of the natural legal order of society.

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Etymology

Origin of substantive right

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

"It's always frustrating to me, as someone who swims in these waters, when these legal issues obscure the substantive right that is underlying all of them, which is people cast a ballot for their preferred candidates in a way that is core to American governance and American democracy, and that's being obscured by whether or not abstention doctrines are appropriate," he said.

From Salon

“It isn’t a substantive right to receive the Miranda warnings themselves.”

From New York Times

“The proposed regulations minimize the substantive right that employees be given time to improve their performance, and they sacrifice fairness for the sake of expediency.”

From Washington Post

The competing measure would keep the state Supreme Court in charge of court rules, but would allow the Legislature to make changes with a three-fifths vote to a provision it finds “abridges, enlarges or modifies any substantive right.”

From Washington Times

Non-citizens outside the US, they added, held “no substantive right or basis for judicial review in the denial of a visa at all”.

From The Guardian