VIII. Summary The High Court in Action Göta High Court and Criminal Cases 1635—1699 1. After Gustav II Adolf succeeded to the Swedish throne, a reformbegan of the judicial system. Four high courts {hovrätt) were established, the last of themin Jönköping in 1634, going under the name Göta High Court. The thesis describes the functioning of this court on the basis of an analysis of its treatment of 1,774 criminal cases referred to it from Småland and Öland in three different periods during the seventeenth century (1635—1644, 1655—1664, and 1681— 1699). Every hundred court {häradsrätt) and town court {rådsturätt) was obliged to submit its examinations and judgements in cases of serious crime (known as “neck and life” cases) for trial by the high court. The trial was prescribed in the basic ordinances of the judicial system,’ and did not come about as a result of an appeal by a person found guilty in the lower courts. In the seventeenth century, no party could refer a criminal case fromone court to a higher court. The submitted cases generally concerned serious crimes; of the 1,774 cases, 1,342 concerned death sentences. The function of the high court was to assess these cases, but it also had to exercise supervision and control of the lower courts by scrutinizing their judgement books every year. The high court thus had insight into the way the lower courts handled minor crimes and civil cases as well. The key role of the high court in the judicial process is further emphasized by its relation to the King in Gouncil. In civil cases, appeal could be made to the high court through the judicial instrument of beneficium revisionis. In criminal cases, on the other hand, the high court itself could often take the final decision about, for example, whether a death sentence passed by a lower court should be confirmed, commuted to another sentence, or referred to the King in Council for a final decision. In civil cases, the high court was thus an intermediate instance, but in practice it was the last instance in criminal cases. Of the 1,342 cases where the lower courts had passed a death sentence, the high court alone decided the issue on 1,262 occasions (revoking 982 sentences and confirming 280) and referred only 80 cases to the King in Council. Schmedeman, pp. 133 ff. and 143 ff.
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