Nobility in the land courts of Belarusian districts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (social aspect)

The land courts of the districts (powiats) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) founded by the Second Lithuanian Statute (1566) embodied the ideal sought by the nobility to have the judicial authority independent from the local administration. The courts had not only become the centres of legal culture but also the centres of the dissemination of the culture of writing. The surviving material from the manuscript district land court books from the present-day territory of Belarus entails a conclusion that apart from their direct judicial function and the notarial function, land courts also had a function of the national notarial practice by recording the documents and events from the regions as well as the whole country. Such a way of treatment of historical sources enables the study of the district land court both as an institution of the ruling social class and also as an authority of national significance