64 legal training in the lower courts and the passing down of Roman law to the legal practise was that since 1653 the offices of the local judiciary were conferred on junior high court judges (assessors). It was nowtheir responsibility to conduct at least one of the three yearly court sessions (autumn, winter, and spring With the Reduction of 1680^^, all lower court sessions were presided over by the hundred court judges themselves. After 1680, most Swedish lower court judges had at least some training in law, although examenjuridicumand high court practice did not become a formal requirement for the judiciary until 1749.'^° Even so, the level of legal studies remained poor.'^* Thus, the level of learning rose amongst the Swedish judiciary in the 1600s, especially during the second half of the century, and above all considerablv so in the high courts. Other groups involved in criminal cases did not share this trend, however. To be sure, with the growth of the written procedure, the use of advocates increased in Swedish courts."*- Many of the advocates - at least those active in high courts - were academically trained. However, the advocates appeared almost solely in civil cases,"*^ and many prosecutors remained without legal training until the end of the nineteenth century.■*■* Perhaps the most typical characteristic of the Swedish court systemand the one that has much importance to our theme as well is that laymen have remained a strong component of country courts all the way from the Middle Ages to modernity. Although opinions as to the actual role of the nämnd {lautakuntaY^ have varied, most students of the theme concur that the role of the laymen diminished in the seventeenth century as the importance and training of the judiciary increased."*^ Nevertheless, the fact that laymen retained (even after the Law of 1734) the possibility of overruling the judge had, I believe, important consequences for the law of proof as well. The laymen and their poor level of legal understanding had to be taken into consideration. Thus, Swedish criminal procedure beIt seems, however, that appellate court judges did not adhere very closely to this rule. Blomstedt 1958 pp. 278, 299-300. Thus, the law-readers continued to be in charge. In the “reductions” of 1655, 1680, and 1682, a large part of the nobility’s enfeoffments was restituted to the Crown. Ibid. pp. 346, 352. On the poor level of legal studies in Sweden and Finland during the latter half of the eighteenth century, Björne 1993; on the legal teaching at the Academy of Turku, Klinge - Knapas - Leikola - Strömberg 1987 pp. 592-600. ■*- On the growing use of written forms, especially in the City Court of Turku in the 1600s, and on the Procedural Ordinance of 1614, see Letto-Vanamo 1989 pp. 223-236. « Ibid. pp. 221, 257-271. Wrede 1895 p. 155; Ylikangas 1988 p. 183. Nämnd is Swedish for the hoard or “jury” consisting of “appointed” laymen at lower courts. The Finnish word lautakunta refers to men sitting around a “table” (lunta). Blomstedt 1958 pp. 346-347 and references mentioned there.
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