THE LITHUANIAN STATUTE OF 1529 AS A MONUMENT OF THE MILITARY LAW OF UKRAINE
Authors:   Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine, Vovk Oleksandr 
Published: March 2023

The purpose of this study is the historical and legal definition of the Lithuanian Statute of 1529 as a legal monument of the military law of Ukraine and the definition of the influence of its norms on the development of military affairs. The article is based on worldview, general scientific, special and specifically scientific methods of knowledge (synthesis and analysis, comparative-legal, logical-historical, structural), of which the quintessence of the entire work is the historical-legal method, that reveals the content of the norms of domestic military law of the 16th century. The procedure of enforcement of the Lithuanian statute of 1529 has been studied. The latter included the norms of public military law that were in force in Ukrainian territories. The legal reason for streamlining the military case was the uncertainty of the legal status of the people's militia. It has been established that the military regulations of the Lithuanian Statute of 1529 established the three most important provisions of military service during the period of declaration of martial law, namely: 1) the procedure for conscription of persons for military service during mobilization; 2) the procedure for demobilization from military service; 3) responsibility for violation of legal norms on military duty and military service. With regard to the first provision, according to the introduction of the Second Section "On Zemstvo Défense" and articles 1 – 6 and 9, in the modern understanding, mobilization with conscription took place only on the basis of a resolution of the Zemstvo. Owners of estates were subject to conscription for military service during the war ("to serve the war"), because the estate itself was a guarantee of conscientious implementation of military rules. For the first time in the constitutional order, the age of majority for military service was determined from the age of seventeen. A positive point was the clearly defined period of validity of the provisions of military law – ten years. The order of demobilization in the modern sense was defined in 7, 8, 10 articles, according to which only the Grand Duke of Lithuania and the Ladies' Council could release servicemen from the armed forces. Liability for violation of established norms on military duty and military service was divided into material and criminal. Material punishments included the forced confiscation of estates in favour of the state, and the criminal punishment was mainly the death penalty. It was determined that the Lithuanian Statute of 1529 as a monument of military law contained: 1) the basic principles of the formation of military law; 2) the norms of military law directly; 3) norms – guarantees of the rights of subjects during military service. It was concluded that the Lithuanian Statute of 1529, as a legal monument of Ukraine of the Middle Ages, concentrated in itself important norms, which were definitely the means of legal regulation of social relations in the military sphere of Ukrainian lands during the first half of the 16th century with the aim of improving military affairs. According to the provisions of this systematized collection of legislation, the organization of conscription for military service and the procedure for its completion were regulated.