To provide a liquid crystal display element with which the liquid crystal cell can optically accurately be compensated, and which can be made thin.

An optical retardation plate comprises a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer which consists of liquid crystalline molecules held between the substrates, and compensates the liquid crystal cell where molecules are oriented in the direction nearly vertical to the substrates. The optical retardation plate also has optically negative refractive index anisotropy. The absolute value of the refractive index anisotropy is not less than 0.060 and not more than 0.085. A retardation value (Re value) expressed by a following general formula (a) is -10 to 10nm, and the optical retardation plate includes a disk-like liquid crystalline compound substantially horizontally oriented. Here, the above general formula (a) is expressed by Re=(nx-ny)×d (in the formula, nx expresses a refractive index in the direction of the lagging axis in the plane of a layer; ny expresses a refractive index in the plane in the direction orthogonal to nx; and d expresses thickness (nm) of the film).