Bajoriškosios ir miestietiškosios teisės susidūrimas Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės magdeburginių teismų praktikoje XVII a. pirmojoje pusėje : sąveika ir konfliktas

ENThe Grand Duchy of Lithuania had a court system based on estates: nobility, free peasants and citizens were tried at the castle court, privileged citizens were tried in the Magdeburgian courts, church court was for the clergy and patrimonial court was for serfs. Which court was to settle disputes between representatives of different estates was regulated by the Statutes of Lithuania. Article 35 of the third chapter of the Third Statute of Lithuania was a watershed between Vilnius and other Magdeburgian cities of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. If a noble was a victim of some citizen of Vilnius, he was to look for justice in one of the Magdeburgian courts of Vilnius. The citizen was to be tried according to the Magdeburg Law, however compensation for a murder or injury of a noble, “head-money” or “wound money”, was to be paid in accordance with the Statute. Citizens of other cities despite the fact that their case was to be brought to the Magdeburgian court of their town had to be tried in accordance with the Statute. Yet a citizen who was wronged by a noble had to appeal to a respective nobility court. Through the court books of Magdeburgian and district (Polish: powiat) castle courts the article analyses how in practice the norms of the Statute were maintained. It is noted that in the Magdeburgian courts citizens, in attempt to procrastinate court processes and to avoid punishment, set German and Statute laws against each other, arguing that because of the town privileges they could not be under local jurisdiction.In other cases these two legal systems would complement each other, yet sometimes regulations of one system would be replaced with the regulations of another. Smooth functioning of the two systems in practice was inhibited by position of power held by one of the sides. To achieve justice for a citizen against a noble in a court of nobility was significantly more difficult both because he was standing on a lower level of social ladder, and also because courts of nobility even after passing a verdict did not have any means to force subsequent execution. Therefore citizens sometimes brought cases against nobility to Magdeburgian courts where they could expect faster and more favourable decisions. However, from the point of view of nobility such courts would be illegal and equalling to demonstration of brutal force. [From the publication]