However, from a comparative perspective, the Swedish model of natural law seems to have protected the interests of the servants and workers to a greater extent than was the case in other European countries.An illustrative example can be taken from the preparation of the Code of 1734. Since medieval times, several of the principal norms in the Statutes on Servants and Hired Labourers were also applicable to the so-called landbolega, which was a contract of mutual usufruct and a forerunner of tenancy. It meant that a farmer let a person use and cultivate a part of his land, while the user was obliged not only to pay an annual rent to the farmer, but also to execute daywork for him. On the one hand the law guaranteed the user occupation and utilisation of the land until the end of the agreed time. On the other hand the working party was subject to farreaching and diffuse obligations. The landowner was on a par with a “master”, and could chastise an obstinate user and capture him in case he ran away before the end of the time agreed, which could be for a specified number of years, or even for the remainder of the user’s life.100 There were, no doubt, several close points between this Swedish landbolega and the serfdom that could be found both on the European Continent and in Denmark.101 However, the Swedish variant was based on a contract for work, which included the precontractual term that either party was free to leave the relationship when the contract time ended. Furthermore, when the Swedish law commission in a draft of 1695 suggested maintaining this established regulation, the clash between different legal cultures became apparent. Representatives from the Swedish provinces on the European continent strongly disagreed with the commission’s proposal.The magistrates of c o n t i n u i t y a n d c o n t r ac t 55 2. 4. 3 Landbolega - a swedi sh dive rgence? 100 Hafström1970, pp. 65-68; Bäärnhielm1970, pp. 337-345. 101 Wahlberg 1870; Franz 1970, p. 288; Koselleck 1972-1992; Schmidt, C1997, p. 162.
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