Lietuvos valdymo ir teisės transformacijos XVIII a. pabaigoje - XIX a. pradžioje

In 1772 Russia, Prussia and Austria signed a treaty by which they partitioned a part of the Lithuanian-Polish state (the Commonwealth), which was weekened by internal contradictions and general disorder. The second partition of the Commonwealth, which resulted in the national uprising and the occupation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, was caused by certain political changes and legal chaos at the juncture of the 18th-19th centuries. After the third partition, the greater part of the Lithuanian-Polish state was incorporated into the Russian Empire with the exception of Užnemunė (the territory on the left-bank of the river Nemunas) ehich fell pray to Prussia. Thus Lithuania lost its political independence, and its citizens lost contacts with West European democracy and its legal traditions. After Lithuania's annexation, Russia reformed its administrative territorial division, annihilated law institutions valid before the partition, introduced the new ones, and restricted the rights of its citizens. In conclusion, the former political administrative system was gradually replaced by a model of autocratic centralized state administration legal system, much favoured by the Russian Tsars.