Contestatio Litis
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
In Civil Law. The statement and answer of the plaintiff and defendant, thus bringing the case before the judge, conducted usually in the presence of ^witnesses. Calv. Lex. This sense is retained in the canon law.
1 Kaufm. Mackeld. Civ. Law, 205.
A cause is said to be contestata when the judge begins to hear the cause after an account of the claims, given not through the pleadings, but by statement of the plaintiff and answer of the defendant. Calv. Lex. In Old English Law. Coming to an issue; the issue so produced. Steph. PI.
39; Crabb, Hist. Eng. Law, 216.
CONTESTATIO LITIS EGET TERMINOS contradictarios. An issue requires terms ol contradiction; that is, there can be no issue without an affirmative on one side and a negative on the other.
Jenk. Cent. Cas. 117.