PROCLAMATIONS AS A SOURCE OF HETMANATE’S CITY LAW OF THE SECOND HALF OF XVII – XVIII CENTURIES

Abstract

The article contains a historical and legal analysis of proclamations as a cumulative source of Hetmanate’s city law of the second half of 17th – 18th centuries, and their characteristic by origin and purpose. It was established that Hetmanate (a state official name was – Zaporizhian Host) was under the rule of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during this period with all the lands and cities, and then as a part of the Russian monarchy. It is studied that in the field of municipal government, public relations in Ukrainian cities were governed by the norms of urban law, including the provisions of local proclamations (locations) of the autonomous government ofHetmanate, which should be divided into separate specific groups. The most significant of them were those that confirmed the granting of the right to self-government of the Magdeburg sample to Ukrainian cities. The proclamations of Ukrainian hetmans of a defensive, prohibited or protective nature, which were granted to the cities of Hetmanate since the reign of B. Khmelnytskyi and including K. Rozumovskyi, protected the rights of urban communities from abuse bythe local administration and representatives of other classes. The cities were given the right to leave a significant part of the income to the city government bodies and burghers by Hetman permitting proclamations. The electoral proclamations of hetmans to certain individuals controlled the order of elections in cities and prevented abuse duringtheir conduct. The regulation proclamations, issued to the cities by hetmans and colonels, clarified the social and economic power ofmagistrates or town halls and established the economic relations of the urban inhabitants. A separate group of local proclamations consisted of those relating to the proper economic activity of urban craft workshops anddefended the social rights of burghers-artisans. It is proved that the norms of proclamations of all groups provided legal regulationof social relations in the sphere of municipal government of Left-Bank Ukraine primarily till the first city reform in Ukrainian citiesconducted by Russian Empire and the introduction of the Charter to Cities of 1785.