Lutsk Tribunal

Lutsk Tribunal (Трибунал луцький; Trybunal lutskyi). The highest appellate court for Bratslav voivodeship, Volhynia voivodeship, and Kyiv voivodeship, created in 1578 by the Great Diet of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in Warsaw. Modeled on the Royal Tribunal, it was composed of 13 judges (deputies) elected by the voivodeship dietines: five judges from Volhynia and four each from Kyiv and Bratslav. The tribunal heard appeals of decisions of the city courts, the land courts, and the pidkomorski courts and was governed by the Lithuanian Statute of 1566. The official language of the tribunal was Ukrainian. Because of opposition from the Polish gentry and Roman Catholic hierarchy, the court was merged in 1589 with the Royal Tribunal, which heard appeals from Ukrainian territories at its sessions in Lublin and Lviv. The abolition of the Lutsk Tribunal was an important blow to Ukrainian autonomy in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]