Casimir Code

The Casimir's Code (Lithuanian: Kazimiero teisynas, Polish: Statut Kazimierza) was a legal code adopted in 1468 by Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Casimir IV Jagiellon with an approval of the Lithuanian Council of Lords. It was the first attempt to codify the laws of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The code prescribed punishment for property crimes and limited court procedures. Much of the legal system was left uncodified and was governed by customs.

The date or the circumstances when the code was adopted are unknown. The historians conjured that the most probable date is February 1468 when the Seimas of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania met in Vilnius. The code differed from privileges previously issued by the Grand Duke because the code granted no new rights to the nobility. Judging from the content, the code was intended for the nobility and landowners, who received Casimir's privilege in 1447 to try veldamai, a class of dependent people that eventually became serfs. The code attempted to impose some consistency in the treatment of veldamai. The document also did not specify the effective date or territory. Historians believe that the code was in effect in entire Lithuania up to the first Statute of Lithuania of 1529 even though no court cases are known that referenced the code.

Written in the Ruthenian language, the original document did not survive, but several copies are known from the end of 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries. The document was first published in 1826 by Ignacy Daniłowicz, law professor at Vilnius University. The document did not have a proper name and was named Casimir's Code or Casimir's Statute by modern historians. The original code was not divided into articles; modern historians have identified 25 articles.

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