Abbreviation of Tripartitum opus juris consuetudinarii incluti regni Hungariae (Latin: "Work in three parts on the customary laws of the notable kingdom of Hungary.")
The Tripartitum is the first codification of Hungarian legal custom, printed in 1517. The collection of laws, which was approved by the Hungarian parliament in 1514, became the basis of Hungarian constitutional structure and jurisprudence until 1848.
Among the legal principles established in the Tripartitum were the equality of the low nobility with the aristocracy; the placing of all political authority in the hands of the collective nobility (as the incorporation of Hungarian sovereignty); and the subjugation and serfdom of the Hungarian peasantry (who lost the right to own land).