Contestatio litis

Lat.

In old English law

The process of coming to an issue in pleading; the issue so attained. Contestatio litis eget terminos contradictarios: an issue requires terms of contradiction. In the civil law. Contestation of suit; a narrative of the controversy made by both the parties before the praetor, including the plaintiff's statement of his claim, and the defendant's answer; the legal quality which a suit assumed through the plaintiff's statement of his case, and the defendant's answer thereto.