United States law The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well a ...

, a stipulation is a formal legal acknowledgment and agreement made between opposing parties before a pending

hearing Hearing, or auditory perception, is the ability to perceive sounds through an organ, such as an ear, by detecting vibrations as periodic changes in the pressure of a surrounding medium. The academic field concerned with hearing is audit ...

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribun ...

. For example, both parties might stipulate to certain facts and so not have to argue them in court. After the stipulation is entered into, it is presented to the judge. The term can also refer to a special rule in a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

match, which can force the loser to do something (such as

retire Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

) or to any other change to the basic rules of the match type. The word is derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

word ''stipula'' "straw." The

Ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–50 ...

custom was that the negotiating parties, upon reaching an agreement, broke a straw as a sign of their mutual agreement and wrote down the agreement's rules (''stipulationes'').Caesar and Christ, Will Durant, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1944

References

Legal terminology {{law-term-stub