Abstract

The object of this research is the law created and enforced by different selfgoverning institutions such as the Church, the town, province and village communities in Lithuania in the Middle Ages. The author examines what was the contribution of this law to the realization of the law-governed state model in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The author believes that this problem can be viewed through the prism of the competition of these communities and their law with the aristocratic Lithuanian state and the law created and ruled by noblemen. This aspect is not considered in the known scientific studies. Pluralism of law is highly preferable as an idea and in practice in law-governed states, because some regress of this conception in one community can be compensated by a progress in any other community. The author thus aimed to advance the hypothesis that favourable conditions for the law-governed state conception in Lithuania in the Middle Ages potentially existed