65 came fundamentally an unlearned one. With laymen playing an important and active part in the legal decision-making, the law of proof could not, despite a certain infusion of learned Roman-canon law in the (high) court practice and legislation, be adopted in its most sophisticated and scientific form. The Swedish criminal procedure differed fromits continental counterpart in several other respects as well. No separate investigative phase existed in Sweden. Instead, the whole case was examined and decided by one and the same court. There was practically no difference between civil and criminal procedure, and no separate courts existed for civil and criminal cases. All lower court decisions were yearly sent to the high courts for inspection. Furthermore, decisions concerning serious crimes, like homicide, were automatically referred to the high courts to decide. Universities: the Birth of theJurist Customarily, it is emphasized that the reception of Roman law did not take place in England'*^ or in the Nordic countries, or that it did so to a limited extent only. Sweden, Norway and Denmark lacked a learned corps of legal professionals capable of casting legal problems in the mold of Roman law.’+s Whether, in what way and to what extent Sweden deviated fromthe common European pattern cannot be decided here. At least as far as the law of proof is concerned, however, it seems clear that the teachings of Roman-canon law were forcefully molded to fit an important characteristic of national Swedish law: the accentuated significance of lay element in legal administration. The Swedish legal system went through a radical, almost revolutionary transformation in the seventeenth century. Above all, a hierarchical instance order was created: High Courts were founded in Stockholm (1614), Turku (1623), and Tartu (1631). In Sweden, legal training was first started in the universities of Uppsala (1566), Tartu (1632), and Turku (1640). The creation of the universities was intimately linked to the needs of the expanding central government, initiated by King Gustavus Vasa.'^*^ The central government’s mode of operation was increasingly by written message, and literate people were needed in the administration. At this point, however, the development of legal studies was not on the agenda of educational reforms. M.iitland - Pollock 1898 pp. 134-135; Koschaker 1953 pp. 213-219; Zimmcrmann has reccnth- cast doubt on the belief in the “isolation” of English law by claiming that England in fact shares a considerable part of the common European legal heritage, Zimmermann 1993 p. 51. Tamm 1993 p. 253; Jägerskiöld, on the contrary, claims that “a far-reaching reception of specific rules and institutes of Roman private law took place in Sweden in the 17th century.” J.ägerskiöld 1967 pp. 202-209. Modeer 1983 p. 120; Klinge - Knapas — Leikola - Strömberg 1987 p. 593.
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