demandants

Demandant is a term used in some legal traditions to denote the party who makes a demand or initiates a civil action, effectively a claimant or plaintiff. In historical English law, the demandant was the person who sought relief from the court by bringing a suit.

Etymology and scope: the word derives from the Old French demander, with the agent noun formation demandant, meaning “one who demands.” Its use is predominantly found in older legal texts and in translations that retain archaic terminology. The demandant is typically described in relation to the defendant, the party who responds to the suit.

Contemporary status: in modern law, demandant is largely obsolete in everyday practice and has been superseded by terms such as plaintiff, claimant, or petitioner, depending on jurisdiction. It persists in scholarly discussions of historical procedure, feudal actions, and in some legal dictionaries as a historical or variant term.

See also: Plaintiff; Claimant; Defendant; Civil procedure; Legal terminology.