Judicial Agency in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 16th Century

This article describes the development of judicial representation in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 16th century. For the first time, the organizational design and legislative consolidation of judicial representation took place in cities with Magdeburg law. The emergence of professional judicial representatives was associated, first of all, with the adoption of the Statute of 1529, which contains legal norms that allow substituting parties in court. The status of professional representatives – lawyers who were called procurators – was consolidated. The statute of 1566, which actually summarized the 30-year practice of law, quite clearly regulated the conduct of the case in court, both personally and through a procurator. The grounds were established when a lawyer was provided free of charge by appointment of a court. The 1588 Statute regulated in detail the procedure for empowering a judicial representative. The author concludes that the institution of representation is firmly rooted in the judicial process, received its written confirmation in the Statutes and, as a result, led to the formation of the institution of the Advocacy.