Terminologia prawnicza w podlaskich dokumentach urzędowych z drugiej połowy XVI wieku

Abstract

This article attempts to characterize legal terminology in the Podlasie official documents of the second part of the XVIth century. It follows from the research that Knyszyn writers used legal terms that were in use in the XVIth century Poland. The Podlasie documents include native names deriving from a pre-Slavonic (e.g. law, plaintiff, warranty) and Old Polish (for example : jednacz [mediator] , poręka [warrantor] , rzecznik [advocate]) language, as well as the names which appeared in the Polish language of the XVIth century (e. g . kuna [tether, handcuff], porucznik [commissioner], poruka [warranty] ) . In the Knyszyn city records there are also foreign terms: German (e.g. burmistrz [mayor], wargielt [compensation], wójt [village administrator]) and Latin (e.g. apelacja [appeal], instancja [instance] , plenipotencja [proxy]) .