Definition
A Latin term from old English law meaning to oppose, refuse, or contradict. It appears in legal records and court documents to signify a party's formal act of refusal or opposition — most commonly in the phrase *reddere contradicit*, meaning "refuses to return," used when a party declined to comply with a writ or court order requiring the return of property or a person.
Common Confusion
Do not conflate *contradicere* with *contrafacere*. The two terms appear adjacently in Burrill and share a Latin prefix, but they address entirely different legal acts. *Contradicere* means to refuse or oppose. *Contrafacere* (also written *controfacere*) means to counterfeit or imitate, and is the root of early counterfeiting law. Burrill's compressed typography in some editions makes the boundary between the two entries easy to miss.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering *contradicere* will find it almost exclusively in early English legal records, Year Books, registers of writs, and medieval plea rolls. The term is not a doctrine or cause of action — it is procedural notation, shorthand used by court clerks and register compilers to record a party's refusal to act. Its significance is largely diagnostic: its presence in a record signals that a procedural dispute or noncompliance event occurred, and the surrounding record should be examined for the nature of the underlying obligation and the court's response.
The phrase *reddere contradicit* is the form most likely to be encountered. Researchers working in early common law sources — particularly the *Registrum Omnium Brevium* (Register of Writs) and the early modern reporters — should recognize it as standard formulaic language rather than a term of art requiring elaborate legal analysis. Burrill cites *Reg. Orig. 92b* and *4 Mod. 153* as loci; these point to the Register of Original Writs and the fourth volume of the Modern Reports, both sources characteristic of late medieval and early modern English practice.
Note that Burrill's entry runs *contradicere* directly into the entry for *contrafacere* without a clean break — a layout artifact that could mislead a researcher skimming quickly into conflating the two terms. They are unrelated: *contradicere* is about opposition and refusal; *contrafacere* concerns counterfeiting or imitation.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill is the sole shelf source providing a definition. His treatment is brief and formulaic, offering the core meaning (to oppose, refuse, contradict) and anchoring it to the specific phrase *reddere contradicit* with register and reporter citations. There is no elaboration on the procedural context in which the term arose or on its trajectory through English legal practice. Historical dictionaries generally treat terms of this kind as self-explanatory to readers already versed in Latin legal formulae — an assumption that does not serve modern researchers well. The entry should be read as a pointer to source materials rather than a complete explanation.
No other Law Mind shelf dictionaries cover this term. Researchers needing fuller context for the writ practice surrounding *reddere contradicit* should consult treatises on early English common law procedure and the Register of Writs directly.