Statutes of Lithuania

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politics and government of Lithuania
Statutes and Constitutions of Lithuania

The Statutes of Lithuania, originally known as the Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, were a 16th-century codification of all the legislation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and its successor, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Statutes consist of three legal codes (1529, 1566, and 1588), all written in Chancery Ruthenian, translated into Latin and later Polish.[1] They formed the basis of the legal system of the Grand Duchy and were "the first full code of laws written in Europe since Roman Law"[2][3][4] and "a major milestone inasmuch as it is the first attempt to codify significant East European legal trends".[5] The Statutes evolved hand-in-hand with the Lithuanian expansion to Slavic lands, thus the main sources of the statutes were Old Lithuanian customary law, Old Slavic customary law, as well as the nobility privileges in Poland, Magdeburg Rights, international treaties and royal charters and proclamations of the 12th to 14th centuries.[6][4][7][8]

On 28 January 1588, Sigismund III Vasa had confirmed the Third Statute of Lithuania which stated that the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth is a federation of two countries – Poland and Lithuania where both countries have equal rights within it and separated the powers of the ruler, the Seimas, the executive and the courts (this for the first time in European history ensured the rule of law in the state, but Lithuania's citizens, who were subjects to the Statute, were only nobles).[9] The Third Statute of Lithuania has outlived the statehood of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which in 1795 ceased to exist due to the partitioning, and was abolished by the Russian tsarist authorities only on 7 July 1840.[9]

  1. ^ Frost 2015, p. 418.
  2. ^ Andriulis, Vytautas. "Lietuvos Statutai". Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (in Lithuanian). Archived from the original on 27 December 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  3. ^ "Trečiasis Lietuvos Statutas". IstorijaTau.lt (in Lithuanian). Archived from the original on 27 December 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  4. ^ a b "Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania". www.belarusguide.com. Archived from the original on 21 April 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  5. ^ Loewe, Karl von The Lithuanian Statute of 1529 Leiden 1976 ISBN 90 04 04520 1, p.3
  6. ^ Machovenko, Jevgenijus (2005). "Lietuvių ir slavų teisės vaidmuo kuriant Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės teisės sistemą". Teisė (in Lithuanian). pp. 75–80. Archived from the original on 16 March 2023. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  7. ^ Я. Юхо. Крыніцы беларуска-літоўскага права Archived 24 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine [The Sources of Belarusian-Lithuanian Law, by Jazep Jucho], Minsk, 1991, pp. 8 et al (in Belarusian)
  8. ^ Т.І.Доўнар, У.М.Сатолін, Я.А.Юхо. Статут Вялікага Княства Літоўскага 1566 года Archived 26 June 2022 at the Wayback Machine [The Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of 1566, by Taisija Doŭnar, Uladzimir Satolin and Jazep Jucho], Minsk, 2003, pp. 8 et al. (in Belarusian)
  9. ^ a b Andriulis, Vytautas. "Trečiasis Lietuvos Statutas". Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 21 October 2024.