A judicial contest, a judicial controversy, a suit at law. (Source: Black, H. C., Blacks’s Law Dictionary, 6th ed., West Publishing Co., St. Paul, 1991)

The process of carrying on a lawsuit - with regard to international law - at a tribunal or court which is mandated to in the respective international agreement (i.e. the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea)(Source: drafted from Black's Law Dictionary)