INTRODUCTIO CAUSAE. - With the introduction of the cause (also called introductio litis), the way is opened for the constitution of the trial, and the suit becomes pending.
A trial is said to be introduced by the plaintiff’s judicial petition presented to the judge and communicated to the opposing party by means of the summons for the joinder of issue. Two conditions must therefore be fulfilled for the trial to be said to be constituted: a) the request for the ministry of the judge, through which the right claimed by one party against the other must be enforced; this is done by the judicial petition, libellus (v.); b) summons (v.) of the other party, to whom the plaintiff’s claim is communicated, so that he may either yield, thus terminating the trial, or defend himself against this claim. All this precedes the joinder of issue, through which the subject-matter of the controversy upon which the judge must pronounce is more precisely determined.
The first two acts, the judicial petition and the summons, constitute the introduction of the cause, of which the CIC treats in tit. VI, chaps. 1-2, cann. 1706-1725.
For the meaning to be attributed to the term introductio causae (can. 2038) in processes of beatification and canonization: V. BEATIFICAZIONE, I, La b. nella liturgia e nel diritto.