Procedural due process of law in the United States Supreme Court: building an instrumental safeguard

This paper aims to reconstruct the history and evolution of the procedural due process of law in the United States Supreme Court Precedents. Besides casting light over the period of the formation of this procedural safeguard, that would become the center of modern civil procedure, exerting considerable influence over Brazilian scholars, the purpose of the paper is to clarify that, however important, due process is currently seen as an instrumental safeguard, subject to ponderation with other values at stake in the case.