Istorijos šaltinių tyrimai / Studies in Historical Sources

The article analysed case registration books of the Supreme Tribunal of the GDL in the 16th-18th century, their structure, development, and the main issues relating to the use of these books in court practice. The oldest surviving register books date back to the mid-17th century. At that time the structure of the records had already become well-established – each page contained a brief entry at the right-hand-side corner, offering data on the parties to the proceedings (names of claimants and defendants, positions held by them or their titles) which were copied from the writ of summons of the case. This structure of each entry remained unchanged until the very end of the 18th century. The case registration books not only informed the court about the considered cases and set the order of their hearing, but also performed other functions, for example, the proceedings of the case and the court rulings were recorded there. The laws only fragmentally provided for the keeping and use of registration books, usually the corresponding requirements were only introduced in order to prevent the misconduct of litigants and clerical staff. In order to organize the work of the court more efficiently, the registration books were started to be categorised according to the nature of the cases, however, the rational way of their use was not devised. Meanwhile, the fact that some of the registration books were singled out from the common system of use led to their wrongdoings, which had a strong negative effect on the efficacy of the GDL Supreme Court and affected the Supreme Court’s ability to effectively deal with appeals and other important cases.