Lietuvos teisinės sistemos teisėkūros posistemė 1240-1795 m ; The subsystem of legislation of lithuanian legal system in 1240-1795

Abstract

The Subsystem of Legislation of Lithuanian Legal System in 1240-1795 This research aims to analyze the legislation subsystem of Lithuanian legal system in 1240–1795. The author focuses on subjects of legislation, legislative procedures, sources of law and a systematization of law, which existed on both central and local level. The development of the legislation subsystem is viewed through the prism of the legislative standards. The standars include a constitutional principle, a principle of coordination of conflicting interests and an aim to have a systemized law. The identification of some features of the standards helps to understand the quality of changes, which happened in the legislation subsystem. In order to analyze the chosen historical period the author separates it into five shorter periods. The conducted research shows that in 1240–1795 the law was created by the society, the sovereign, the Council of Lords, the Guardianship of the Laws, the Parliament, confederations of boyars and conventions of boyars. Legislation was also conducted by self-governed communities. It is worth noticing that the monarch and boyars possessed wide competence in legislative procedures. On the local level a common feature of legislative procedures was a participation of a community. The main sources of law included a legal custom, a public normative contract, a legal precedent and a normative legal act. The systematization of law was conducted in different ways. Until 1529 the main form of systematization was compiliation. In 1529 codification was introduced. However, on the local level there were no significant efforts to systemize the law. The results of the research suggest that certain features of the legislative standards were inherent in the subsystem of legislation of Lithuanian legal system in 1240–1795.