litis

Litis is a Latin term derived from lis, meaning dispute or lawsuit. In Latin grammar, lis is a feminine noun of the third declension, and litis is its genitive form. In English-language law and in many civil-law traditions, litis appears not as an independent word but as part of fixed Latin phrases that denote litigation or related procedural concepts.

Common phrases include lis pendens, literally “pending lawsuit,” which designates a pending action that may affect the title to property or the jurisdiction of the forum. Lis pendens serves to give notice that a dispute exists, potentially affecting subsequent actions. Another form, lis alibi pendens, arises when a dispute is pending in another forum and may affect the case at hand. Litis contestatio is a related term used in Roman law and some civil-law systems to denote a stage in which a dispute is formally constituted as an action; its exact implications vary by jurisdiction but it generally marks the initiation of the action and its binding effect on the parties.

Today, litis is primarily encountered in legal discourse within civil-law contexts or comparative-law writing. It is rarely used as a standalone English term outside these phrases. Its function is to convey notions of litigation, procedural notice, and the formal start of legal proceedings rather than to describe a substance beyond the dispute itself. See also lis pendens, lis alibi pendens, litis contestatio.