The Crown Tribunal (, ) was the highest

appellate court An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appel ...

in the

Crown of the Kingdom of Poland The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (; ) was a political and legal concept formed in the 14th century in the Kingdom of Poland, assuming unity, indivisibility and continuity of the state. Under this idea, the state was no longer seen as the Pat ...

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 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'' (; ; ) were the nobility, noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Depending on the definition, they were either a warrior "caste" or a social ...

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

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 #Etymology, alternative names), often simplified to Piotrków, is a city in central Poland with 71,252 inhabitants (2021). It is the capital of Piotrków County and the second-largest city in the Łódź Voi ...

(for the lands of

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; ), is a Polish Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest city in Poland. The bound ...

, held in autumn and winter) and

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

(for the lands of

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

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

Łuck Lutsk (, ; see below for other names) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Volyn Oblast and the administrative center of Lutsk Raion within the oblast. Lutsk has a population of A city wit ...

, and from 1764, some were in

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

. 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 term magnate, 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 (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

. 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 language, Polish: ''Sejm Wielki'' or ''Sejm Czteroletni''; Lithuanian language, Lithuanian: ''Didysis seimas'' or ''Ketverių metų seimas'') was a Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwea ...

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 partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...

. 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