The three editions of the Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1529, 1566, 1588) belong to the legal codes of universal importance and are called the phenomena of the historical epoch. The Code of feudal law is written in “Russian” (Belorussian and Ukrainian), which was used as the office language in the country. This document is of great importance for the investigation of the lexis and other linguistic aspects of the literary Belorussian and Ukrainian languages of the 16th century. The Statutes reflect the process of the development of the social and political changes of the state. Being a monument of juridical writing, they extensively reflect the social lexis. In the article, the comparative method has been applied for the analysis of the following subgroups of lexis dealing with: a) social layers and different occupations; b) duties, obligations, tributes, customs, income taxes; c) territorial-administrative items and propriety names. The article focuses attention on the common features and differences in the three editions of the Statutes. The analysis allows us to draw conclusions that in the lexis of the Statutes there are many words widely reflecting the above-mentioned thematic groups. In the second (1566), and especially in the third (1588) edition, as they became more voluminous due to new or supplementing articles, the thematic lexical group is enriched by new terms, most often loanwords which are Polonisms or Polonism-Germanisms, Polonism-Latinisms and others. A great many of those words were known in the Old Russian language and some of them had undergone semantic changes. In the titles denoting professions and occupations there were more borrowings, while in the titles concerning courtiers and artisans there were words from Eastern Slavonic. Very peculiar neologisms from Old Belorussian and Ukrainian are rather rare. Due to the different origins of the words, the synonymy of some terms has been registered.

One of the most important monuments of juridical-legal literature in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is the Statute (its three editions: 1529, 1566, 1588), the code of feudal law written in the “Rusian” language, which for several centuries was used as the chancery/office language in the country. This document is very important for research on the lexis and other linguistic aspects of 16th-century literary Belorussian and Ukrainian, because the lexical layer best reflects the GDL’s political, economic and cultural relations with other countries. The lexis of the Statute is thematically quite diverse, but the legal-juridical vocabulary in this code of feudal law is the richest. In the article, using the comparative method, the thematic-lexical cluster of words denoting or defining crimes, criminals and forms of punishment is analysed. The common features of this lexis, its specific traits and loanwords in the three editions are identified. The analysis shows that the Statute contains both common and specific words and terms naming various life situations, crimes, offenders and punishments. In the second (1566) and especially the third (1588) edition, which became more extensive due to new or supplementary articles, this thematic-lexical cluster was enriched with new terms, most often loanwords. From the point of view of origin, the lexis shows items inherited from Old Russian (often polysemous), from Old Belorussian and Ukrainian (with specific word-formation), as well as borrowings – mostly Polonisms, but also Polonism–Germanisms and Polonism–Latinisms. A distinctive feature of this lexical cluster is polysemy: the same words can denote both crimes and types of punishment. There are also pairs of short words for crimes and criminals, synonymic doublets of different roots expressing the same concept, and word-formation variants. The analysis confirms that in the 16th century terminology in this field had not yet been standardised, and the three editions of the Statute reflect particular stages in the formation of legal-juridical terminology. Thus, besides its legal value, the Statute is a unique linguistic phenomenon of its time.