Odger's English Common Law

Chapter VII.
REMEDIES.
Law not only creates rights ; it also provides remedies for
wrongs. A law, as we have seen, is a rule of conduct which
the State prescribes and enforces. It is prescribed by sub-
stantive law, and enforced by adjective law. In other words,
substantive law deals with rights and duties, adjective law
with remedies. The wisest measure conferring rights or
imposing duties will be inoperative, if no adequate remedy
be provided in case those rights are violated or those duties
neglected. A defect in the machinery by which an Act is to
be enforced will often render that Act a dead letter.
It is the boast of English law that " there is no wrong
without a remedy." But this boast is not wholly justified.
There are certain wrongs for which the law, on grounds of
public policy, allows no redress. Thus no action will lie for
certain acts of State, or for defamatory words uttered in
Parliament or by a judge on the bench. Again the remedy
for a wrong may in some cases be barred, although the right
is not extinguished. In such cases the remedy may sometimes
be revived.
As a rule,, the remedy must be sought in the Law Courts.
But there are a few cases in which a person injured may
" take the law into his own hands " and obtain redress without
legal proceedings. Thus he may enter upon his own
lands, or retake possession of his own goods, whenever he
can do so peaceably ;
he may enter upon the lands of another
to abate a private nuisance, or to distrain for rent in arrear.
But in most cases he must have recourse to litigation.
There are two kinds of remedies—criminal and civil.
When the State proceeds to enforce the rights of its citizens
by punishing those who violate them with fine and imprison-
ment, the proceedings are criminal. When thejState compels