Makarchuk V. Legal Status of Registered Cossacks in Ukraine.

The dissertation studies the legal status of the Registered Cossacks on the bassis of the analysis of legal acts and administrative practice materials. The legal status of the Cossacks in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish–Lithuanian State, the Moscow kingdom and the Russian Empire during the period of Ukrainian ethnic territories being their part in XV–XVIII centuries was analyzed. The research is based on the legal acts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the kings of the Polish–Lithuanian State, the Ukrainian Hetmans and hetman authorities, treaties and international treaties, as well as on the acts of the Moscow tsarists and the legislation of the Russian Empire. The main normative and legal acts ensuring the formation of the Institute of Ukrainian Cossacks recruiting at the stage of its formation in the Polish- Lithuanian State were the two royal privileges (June 5, 1572 and September 16, 1578), which appointed heads of all Cossacks (registered and low-rank), limited the judicial authority over the vassals and determined the certain level of pay and individual privileges. The legal sources of the registered Cossacks legitimacy during the formation of the Ukrainian Hetman state and its relations with Mоscovia were Ukrainian-Polish and Ukrainian-Moscow treaties. By 1652 the legal status of the registered Cossacks was determined by the Zboriv Agreement of 1649 and the Bila Tserkva Agreement of 1651. Since 1654, the Pereiaslav Agreement and the articles of the hetmans with the Moscow tsarist agreements concluded on its basis became the constitutional source of the legal status of the Registered Cossacks. After all, it was the treaty articles that declared the military-political alliance of Cossack Ukraine with the Moscow state and were determined the Registered Cossacks as the basis of the armed forces of the Ukrainian Hetman state and guaranteed the inviolability of the Cossack rights and freedoms.