Determination of the U.S. pleading from the civil law perspective

Determining the allegations of a pleading is still one of the most controversial topics in U.S. federal civil procedure law. As the Supreme Court’s statements in Twombly and Iqbal have spawned extensive literature, the purpose of this article is to address the matter from a different and to some extent, unusual, perspective, namely the provisions of the civil law pleading, analyzed in terms of their historical development and conceptual cornerstones. In seeking to go beyond a mere comparative analysis, this methodological approach aims to better understand the Supreme Court’s interpretation.