3. Not a mere breach of contract.
4. Not a mere breach of trust or other equitable obligation.
Quasi-contractual obligations:
The nature of quasi-contract.
Instances of quasi-contracts.
Reasons of their recognition.
Innominate obligations.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE LAW OF PROCEDURE.
§ 172. Substantive Law and the Law of Procedure.
It is no easy task to state with precision the exact nature of the distinction between substantive law and the law of procedure, and it will conduce to clearness if we first consider a plausible but erroneous explanation. In view of the fact that the administration of justice in its typical form consists in the application of remedies to the violations of rights, it may be suggested that substantive law is that which defines the rights, while procedural law determines the remedies. This application, however, of the distinction between jus and remedium is inadmissible. For in the first place there are many rights which belong to the sphere of procedure; for example, a right of appeal, a right to give evidence on one’s own behalf, a right to interrogate the other party, and so on. In the second place, rules defining the remedy may be as much a part of the substantive law as are those which define the right itself. No one would call the abolition of capital punishment, for instance, a change in the law of criminal procedure. The substantive part of the criminal law deals not with crimes alone, but with punishments also. So in the civil law, the rules as to the measure of damages pertain to the substantive law, no less than those declaring what damage is actionable; and rules determining the classes of agreements which will be specifically enforced are as clearly substantive as are those determining the agreements which will be enforced at all. To define procedure as concerned not with rights, but with remedies, is to confound the remedy with the process by which it is made available.