The Crown Tribunal ( pl, Trybunał Główny Koronny, la, Iudicium Ordinarium Generale Tribunalis Regni) was the highest

appellate court A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...

in the

Crown of the Kingdom of Poland The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Korona Królestwa Polskiego; Latin: ''Corona Regni Poloniae''), known also as the Polish Crown, is the common name for the historic Late Middle Ages territorial possessions of the King of Poland, includ ...

for most cases. Exceptions were if a noble landowner was threatened with loss of life and/or property, when he could appeal to the Sejm court (Parliament court). In 1578, King

Stefan Batory Stefan may refer to: * Stefan (given name) * Stefan (surname) * Ștefan, a Romanian given name and a surname * Štefan, a Slavic given name and surname * Stefan (footballer) (born 1988), Brazilian footballer * Stefan Heym, pseudonym of German writ ...

created the Crown Tribunal to reduce the enormous pressure on the royal court. That placed much of the monarch's juridical power in the hands of the elected deputies of the

szlachta The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in ...

(nobility) and further strengthened that class. In 1581, the Crown Tribunal was joined by a counterpart in Lithuania, the

Lithuanian Tribunal The Lithuanian Tribunal (; pl, Trybunał Główny Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego) was the highest appellate court for the Lithuanian nobility, nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was established by King Stephen Báthory in 1581 as the ...

(''Trybunał Litewski''). The tribunal consisted of 27 secular deputies elected from the nobility (

) annually during the sessions of the local parliaments (

sejmik A sejmik (, diminutive of ''sejm'', occasionally translated as a ''dietine''; lt, seimelis) was one of various local parliaments in the history of Poland and history of Lithuania. The first sejmiks were regional assemblies in the Kingdom of ...

s) and 6 ecclesiastical deputies elected by their respective Chapters. The tribunal was headed by a Tribunal President (''prezydent'' for the Crown Tribunal, ''prezes'' for the Lithuanian Tribunal) and a Marshal (''marszałek trybunału''). The Marshal was chosen from and by the judges themselves, and the President dealt with ecclesiastic matters and was a high-ranking priest. Two main locations of the Crown Tribunal were

Piotrków Trybunalski Piotrków Trybunalski (; also known by alternative names), often simplified to Piotrków, is a city in central Poland with 71,252 inhabitants (2021). It is the second-largest city situated in the Łódź Voivodeship. Previously, it was the capita ...

(for the lands of

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; german: Großpolen, sv, Storpolen, la, Polonia Maior), is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest cit ...

, held in autumn and winter) and

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of ...

(for the lands of

Lesser Poland Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a ...

, in spring and summer). Until 1590, some sessions were held in

Łuck Lutsk ( uk, Луцьк, translit=Lutsk}, ; pl, Łuck ; yi, לוצק, Lutzk) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Volyn Oblast (province) and the administrative center of the surrounding L ...

, and from 1764, some were in

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...

. A session of the tribunal would last six months. Decisions were supposed to be taken by consensus in the first or second voting, but if there was no consensus, the third could was to be decided by a simple majority. The tribunals had many problems since their creation, as the judges rarely had any formal training and were basically politicians elected each year. With the progressive degradation of Polish political system in the early 18th century, the tribunals became as corrupt and dependent on the

magnate The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

s from the

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

. Several minor reforms had little effect until the tribunals were finally subject to a major reform by the

Great Sejm The Great Sejm, also known as the Four-Year Sejm ( Polish: ''Sejm Wielki'' or ''Sejm Czteroletni''; Lithuanian: ''Didysis seimas'' or ''Ketverių metų seimas'') was a Sejm (parliament) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that was held in War ...

of 1788-1792. However, those reforms, along with the Tribunals themselves, were soon annulled in the aftermath of the

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 12 ...

. Crown Treasury courts were created in 1613 (''Trybunał Skarbowy Koronny, Trybunał Skarbowy Litewski''). The wages for all judges were decided at Sejm meetings.

References

{{Authority control Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Legal history of Poland Defunct courts 1578 establishments in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 1578 in law Courts and tribunals established in 1578 Courts and tribunals disestablished in 1795

See also

References