prejudicium

Prejudicium is a Latin term used in legal contexts to refer to a preliminary or antecedent matter whose determination is necessary before a court may decide a related issue. The word derives from prae- "before" and iudicium "judgment." In contemporary civil and administrative procedure, a prejudicial issue, or prejudicial question, is one whose resolution is a prerequisite to the main dispute. If such an issue is undecided, the court may stay the case, refer the question to a higher court, or dismiss the action depending on the jurisdiction.

Depending on the legal system, prejudicium can address questions of jurisdiction (whose court has authority), substantive facts, or legal principles that would influence the outcome. For example, if whether a contract was valid depends on a specific law, determining the law’s applicability may be a prejudicial issue; resolving it first may block the main claim otherwise.

Historically, the term appears in Roman law and later in civil-law traditions to categorize preliminary issues in litigation. In modern usage, many jurisdictions prefer terms like "prejudicial question," "preliminary issue," or "reference question," but prejudicium remains a scholarly descriptor for the concept.

Outside procedural contexts, prejudicium can also mean prejudice in the sense of damage or bias, but this use is distinct from its technical legal sense.

See also: preliminary objection, Vorfrage (German), affaire préjudiciaire (French).