Interpretation of «Judicial Outskirts» («Okolytsia») in the Public Legal Proceedings in the Ukrainian Lands as a Part of Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL)

Andrii Hurbyk
Candidate of Historical Sciences (Ph.D. in History), Senior Research Fellow,
Institute of History of Ukraine of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Ukraine, Kyiv),
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.15407/ul2009.01.011

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Abstract

In the Ukrainian lands as a part of GDL so-called «kopne pravo» was characterized with the high degree of systematization of legal norms and sharpen mechanisms of making decision in civil and criminal cases. In popular legal consciousness of Ukrainians only judicial sittings («viche», «kopa») were considered as legitimate ones which took place on traditional places (an area in the centre of a village, near-by a church, «kopushche», boundaries of villages, a bank of a river and so on). It is evidence of religious syncretism of popular world view which appeared in heathen adoration of forests and glades, and Christian appeal to God while taking «kopna» oath in a church. In popular legal views on «okolytsia» the spatial imaginations are clearly marked. The fact is that the surrounding space was not limited yet to the territory of a village contrary to the Middle Ages’ outlook. A village was not seen as isolated from the other settlements space, but as a part among similar ones. All neighboring villages formed «okolytsia» and were named as «sugranni». Although peasant imagination was extended only to those very neighboring settlements.

 

Keywords

Kopne pravo, legal proceedings, village, Ukrainian lands, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Middle Ages.

 

Archives

Центральний державний історичний архів України, м. Київ [The State Historical Archive in Kyiv].

  

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