Libelo, Citación y Contestación de la Demanda (DCH) (Libel, Summons and Response to Accusations (DCH))

No. 2019-26

The objective of this article is to examine, primarily, the three acts that generated the processual juridical relation which, first, brought the parties together, and then placed them before a jurisdictional organ; an issue of fundamental importance in processual law, for it is only at the moment that these three central figures were validly related that we can speak of a formal trial. The text analyzes the definition, origin, characteristics, content and form in which suits (libels) were presented, before proceeding to examine the first citation (emplazamiento), the importance of which for justice was such that the act was protected by human, natural and even divine law that binded the Monarch himself and the Pope; thus, it is important to specify its effects and content. The response to the suit is the final processual act examined to complete this analysis of the acts considered the beginning of lawsuits in the period under study.