Wincenty Skrzetuski about the Crown and Lithuanian Tribunal

Abstract

Wincenty Skrzetuski, an outstanding political writer, lawyer and historian, in his handbook Prawo polityczne narodu polskiego – The Political Right of Polish Nation – or – The Constitutional Law of Polish Nation), when discussing the issue of the functioning of the political and legal system of the gentry Republic, presented a short draft about the Crown and Lithuanian Tribunal, which were the gentry’s supreme court in the years 1578–1794. For the gentry the Tribunal was the supreme court, to which appeals were made from lower courts, both in civil and criminal suits. Polish piarist made interesting digressions which showed some of the weak points of
the functioning in the Tribunal. Wincenty Skrzetuski, discussing a procedure of the supreme court sessions. A characteristic feature of the Tribunal was the fact that it was not divided into specialized departments investigating several cases simultaneously. It was decided that the passed judgments would only have the proper authority if they were passed by all the judges from Poland and Lithuania, who in this way represented the majesty of the gentry Republic. The opinions and viewpoints presented by Skrzetuski allow to ascribe him to the group of the Polish political writers, who postulated some drafts of the reforms in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.