Administrative law

Entry thirty-eight is le délai de recours contentieux, and its last word looks like an old acquaintance. In everyday English « contentious » passes a verdict on a subject: a contentious decision is one people argue about, a contentious figure divides a room. The French word passes no verdict at all. As an adjective it simply means before a court: le recours contentieux is the application to the administrative judge, as against the complaint sent back to the authority itself, and la voie contentieuse is the judicial route. As a noun it names the whole business of litigation. Le contentieux administratif is administrative litigation as a field, le service du contentieux is the legal department of a company or a ministry, and un contentieux is a single dispute or, by extension, a grievance two parties have carried for years, as in un vieux contentieux entre les deux pays. English lawyers keep a trace of the older sense, since a solicitor still sorts work into contentious and non-contentious. Outside that office, render the entry as « the time limit for bringing proceedings », and never as a contentious deadline.