Due process
Etymology
From "due," meaning owed or proper, and "process," a legal proceeding. Its roots reach back to Magna Carta in 1215 and its promise of judgment by "the law of the land"; the exact phrase "due process of law" appears in a 1354 English statute under Edward III and was later enshrined in constitutional guarantees.
noun phrase · /DOO PROS-es/
The requirement that the state treat people fairly according to established legal procedures before depriving them of life, liberty, or property.
What it names
The bedrock handle for procedural fairness — the guarantee that power must follow known rules and give you a hearing, rather than acting by whim or decree.
Example
Firing him by text with no explanation or hearing struck the tribunal as a plain denial of due process.
Related idea
The procedural engine that gives habeas corpus its force; where habeas corpus challenges one specific unlawful detention, due process is the broad principle that all such deprivations must follow fair, established steps.