Procedural Law: Forensic Practice Primer

• Forensic practice is a basic element of the subject dedicated to procedural law teaching.
• Approaching the reality of the forum allows students to understand theory more easily and accurately.
• Law has two fundamental aspects: substantive and adjective or procedural.
• The latter refers to the rules to be applied for the realization of the former.
• Knowledge of procedural law in judicial life isn't enough; one must know how to develop professional activity.
• Knowing the law is different from knowing how to enforce it.
• After university studies, training for the practice of law is necessary, either voluntarily or obligatorily, depending on the country.
• Acquiring this knowledge is called forensic practice can be acquired in various ways, typically alongside another lawyer.

Procedural Law

• Procedural law is the set of rules that regulate the judicial process. It regulates the requirements, development, and effects of the process.
• Procedural law is a branch of public law that includes the set of acts by which the legal relationship between the judge, the parties, and other intervening persons is established, developed, and determined.
• The purpose of this legal relationship is to provide a solution to the dispute raised by the parties, through a judge's decision based on the facts affirmed and proven, and on applicable law.
• New study plans emphasize providing students with education especially oriented to professional practice.
• The acquisition of skills and competencies is acquiring a practical aspect that was previously undervalued.
• Subjects whose teaching corresponds to the area of knowledge of procedural law in general have a clear practical orientation.
• Their natural professional scope is forensic practice, hence, observing and using materials from practice in courts is primary support for procedural teaching.
• Observing how some of the studied institutions materialize (demand, conciliation attempt, allegation of formal defects in the preliminary hearing or in the trial, etc.) can help better understand procedural institutions.
• Understanding these institutions aids knowledge of their function and procedural relevance.
• Analyzing the different procedures carried out in a process is usually done in a fragmented and isolated way on the theoretical level.
• Perceiving a process in its entirety allows one to understand the relationship between the different actions.
• Witnessing real procedural actions isn't just about more procedural aspects within the contents of the subjects whose teaching is entrusted to procedural law; it's also a primary tool for understanding the function in the process of essential notions, such as guiding principles or fundamental rights of procedural content.
• Actions subject to observation and analysis can serve as a basis for other more practical activities, like analyzing the actions of different procedural subjects, or having students design the procedural strategy to follow in some of the analyzed institutions. In this way, the observation of the practice offers some advantages that cannot be replaced by similar activities such as dramatizations of judgments, role-playing games, etc.
• Activities are always spontaneous in the litigation that comes from real practice, and ultimately, are closest to what may be the student's professional work.
• Acquiring certain skills in higher education is necessarily different from preparing for professions such as lawyer, prosecutor, judge, secretary, etc. after passing the corresponding tests.
• The objective of these teaching activities is not so much to acquire professional practice but to facilitate the understanding of the contents of the subject and introduce the student to the skills of acting in the process.
• The importance of students' contact with forensic practice and the widespread use of this teaching tool among teachers contrasts with the lack of institutional coverage for this type of activity.
• The main drawback for the procedural law teacher when trying to provide their students with contact with the practice is that it depends exclusively on personal effort and the willingness of the court staff to facilitate their task. The effort of teaching and judicial professionals is usually enough to achieve the intended goals.