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Doctrine

Standing (law)

Civil Procedure and Judicial Process Doctrine
Origin 1922-1923 (United States)

In law, standing, or locus standi, is the requirement that a party seeking a legal remedy show a sufficient connection to, and harm from, the law or action being challenged before a court will hear the case. Standing is most clearly established where a party is directly harmed by a statute or action, but courts have also recognized it where the injury is only reasonably related to the plaintiff's circumstances, such as in cases involving a chilling effect on speech, and some statutes, including certain environmental laws, grant standing to sue regardless of whether the plaintiff suffered a direct personal injury. In the United States, this requirement means a person generally cannot challenge a law's constitutionality unless they themselves face imminent harm from it, and a court lacking standing will dismiss the case without reaching the underlying constitutional question. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Origin Period
1922-1923 (United States) 1
Core Principle
A party must show sufficient connection to and harm from the challenged law or action to be heard by the court. 1
Origin Period
Origin Period (category)
20th Century (1900-1999) 1
Classification
Doctrine Category
Procedural Law 2
Connections

In Area Of Law

Entity-backed identity for the doctrine category value this doctrine already carries as an enum fact, resolved to a doctrine entity by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The enum fact itself stays on the entity unchanged.

Sources
1. Standing (law) (Wikipedia)
  • United States, history
    The American doctrine of standing is assumed as having begun with the case of Frothingham v. Mellon (1923).
  • Lead paragraph
    a party seeking a legal remedy must show they have, by demonstrating to the court, sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged to support that party's participation in the case.
  • In Group: Justiciability Doctrines, lead: condition requiring sufficient connection to and harm from the challenged action
View the Source
2. Wikipedia: Standing (law)
a condition that a party seeking a legal remedy must show they have, by demonstrating sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challengedView the Source
Frequently Asked Questions

What must a party show to have standing in a case?

A sufficient connection to, and harm from, the law or action challenged.

A party seeking a legal remedy must show the court that it has sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged to support its participation in the case. The American doctrine of standing is assumed to have begun with the case of Frothingham v. Mellon in 1923.
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