LEGAL PRINCIPLES OF THE THIRD LITHUANIAN STATUTE IN THE LIFE OF CRAFTSMEN OF THE HETMANATE IN THE SECOND XVII - XVIII CENTURIES

Abstract

The article examines the legal provisions of the Lithuanian Statute of 1588, which regulated the life and activities of craftsmen, and their actual application in the legal field of the Hetmanate in the second half of the 17th and 18th cc.: Kyiv, Poltava, Lokhvytsia, Keleberda, Kobeliaky, etc.

Craftsmen belonged to various large social groups of the urban population: burghers, Cossacks, and commoners (“pospolyty”), as well as small socio-professional groups, including protectionaries and co-neighbours. The political structure of the Hetmanate led to the duality of power in cities, where both city law and city government (magistrate or town hall) were in place, as well as regimental and/or sotnia government of a military and administrative unit. The legal certainty of craftsmen's guilds, supported by privileges and charters, gave them the right to operate and be subordinate to magistrates. This led to the peculiarities of the Hetmanate cities: the specificity of the judicial and economic subordination of the burghers, the existence of crafts outside the guilds (as Cossacks’ «protectionaries”), eventual transitions to the Cossack class and vice versa, and the limitation of the burghers' category to the trade element only. It is established that in the cities of the Hetmanate, both the Lithuanian Statute of 1588 and Magdeburg law (‘Statute’ or ‘Saxon’) functioned for different social classes. Non-punishable crimes, i.e. all crimes except theft and murder, were resolved by the guild’s court (general meeting of “brothers”). However, often interpreted as specific ‘laws’ or ‘court of the guild’, the rules of Magdeburg law are customary. The articles of the Lithuanian Statute can be divided into several groups: general rules for burghers and rules concerning craftsmen, which relate to criminal proceedings.