KLAIPĖDOS KRAŠTO TEISMAI
COURTS OF THE MEMEL TERRITORY

Summary/Abstract: After the First World War, according to the agreement between British Empire, France, Italy, Japan and Lithuania, the sovereign rights to the Territory were transferred to the State of Lithuania. This action triggered a variety of issues. Disagreements arose in the area of justice.The article analyzes the legal regulation of the organization of the judiciary of the Memel Territory, discusses the systems of both the general and specialized courts of the Territory. Also it deals with the relation between the territorial and the central Lithuanian courts and the problems arising from that relationship: the separation of competence between the Grand Chamber of Lithuanian Senior Tribunal and the Division of the Memel Territory in the Senior Tribunal, jurisdiction of the cases when the crimes were committed by the Lithuanian officers, working in the Memel Territory, the transmission of cases to the central courts of Lithuania, in whose name the judgments of the territorial courts should have been rendered, language of proceedings, preparation of territorial lawyers, enforcement of the judgments of German courts by the territorial courts, oath of territorial judges.Generally, there are two main aims of the article. First, fully identify the system of the courts of the Memel Territory. Second, reveal issues of coexistence of different legal systems – international, Lithuanian, German, local – in the Territory.The article focuses mainly on the documents found in the Lithuanian Central State Archives: the decisions of the Senior Tribunal, separate opinions of the judges, pro memoria of the governors of the Memel Territory, the letters of Lithuanian ministers and officials of the Directorate of the Territory, the laws of the Chamber of Representatives of the Territory, the orders of the President of the Directorate, the announcements of the territorial courts, conversations between representatives of Germany, Signatory States and Lithuania. Researches and publications by interwar Lithuanian scientists and mass media have been used as well.

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