Pidkomorskyi court

Pidkomorskyi court [підкоморський суд]. A type of land court in medieval Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and Right-Bank Ukraine. Pidkomorski courts were based on the Second (1566) and Third (1588) Lithuanian Statute, and functioned in Ukraine until 1654. Initially they consisted of representatives of each of the sides in a land dispute, but eventually they were reduced to a single judge (pidkomorii) appointed by the king. The judge could choose an assistant. They were closely connected with the land courts and their verdicts could be appealed to a marshal-commissioner court. After a one-century interval these courts were re-established by Hetman Kyrylo Rozumovsky in 1763. Each regiment of the Hetman state set up its own court, consisting of the pidkomorii, komornyk, and scribe, who were elected by the landowners and regimental Cossack starshyna. The courts were again abolished, by Catherine II, in 1783, and again re-established in 1796. Renamed boundary courts in 1834, they continued to function until 1840.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]