Statutes of Lithuania (Lithuanian Lietuvos statutas, Polish Statuty litewskie) were a 16th century collection of all the legislation of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy and its successor, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was unique at that time, because, unlike the Polish-Lithuanian Union, most European countries were absolute monarchies that did not invest as much authority in legislative bodies or seek to codify their acts.
The first statute was created in 1522 and came into power in 1529 by the initiative of the nobles' council. Most of the work was carried out by Albertas Gotautas . The basic aim of that first statute was to standardise and collect various tribal and traditional laws in order to codify them as a single document.
The second statute went into effect in 1566 by the order of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund I the Old (Lithuanian ygimantas Senasis, Polish Zygmunt Stary), and was larger and more advanced. The King did this because of pressure from the Lithuanian nobles, as the expansion of nobles' rights since the publication of the first statute had made it redundant. The second statute was prepared by a special commission, consisting of ten members, appointed by the Grand Duke and the nobles' council.
The third statute was accepted in 1588, altering the laws in response to the Union of Lublin, which created the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Copies of the statutes used to be kept in each powiat (district) so they could be used and seen by each person desiring to do so.
Last updated: 08-23-2005 15:18:09