Substance and Procedure

A Dubai trader has a perfectly good claim for unpaid invoices. Suppose Dubai law gives him longer to sue than Indian law does, and the Indian period has just run out. He files in Mumbai. Which limit applies? If the answer is Indian law, he loses a claim he would have won at home. If Dubai law, the Mumbai court must apply a rule that is nothing like its own. The answer depends on whether limitation is substance or procedure, a line that looks simple and is not.

In two minutes

The forum applies its own law (lex fori) to matters of procedure, even where foreign law (lex causae) governs the substance; so the classification of a rule as substantive or procedural decides which law applies, and limitation, evidence and damages are the contested areas.

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