La domanda riconvenzionale nel processo civile giustinianeo

It is rather debated among scholars whether in Justinianic civil trial the counterclaim could also be filed after the litis contestatio. To answer the question, no elements can be found either in C. 7.45.14 or in Nov. 96.2.1, the constitutiones with which Justinian regulated the counterclaim. Nor are any useful indications to be found in the pages of Byzantine legal literature dedicated to this topic. In the absence of direct evidence, the paper proposes to consider the litis contestatio as the general final deadline for filing a counterclaim, except in two cases that would have allowed mutatio libelli even after the expiry of this deadline.