n 1997 whenJohan Hirschfeldt, then president of the Svea Court of IAppeal, envisaged the celebrations of its fourth centenary, he expressed his hopes for a book analysing its history. However, as Sture Petrén, Stig Jägerskiöld and Tord O:son Nordberg had published a fullscale scientific work in 1964 focusing on the history of the Court until 1734,1 Hirschfeldt visualized that the book published in 2014 would recount the Court’s history mainly from 1734 until the present, but perhaps with a less scientific approach.2 Indeed, the notion that the earlier history of the Svea Court of Appeal has already to some extent been exhausted, thus rendering it a less worthwhile subject, seems to be recurring. More than a decade later, and even today, such a notion was expressed in the review of the Festschrift Svea hovrätt 400 år [Engl. Svea Court of Appeal 400 Years] inSvenska Juristtidningen [Engl. Swedish Lawyers’ Journal]. “It is a wise editorial starting point [to focus on today and the future] especially as the early history of the Svea Court of Appeal already is extraordinarily well documented by inter alia Sture Petrén, President of the Court of Appeal, and Professor Stig Strömholm in connection with the 350th and 375th anniversaries of the court.”3 Luckily, such opinions were still unknown to me when in 2009 I felt that the Svea Court of Appeal merited a book focusing on its history for its fourth centenary in 2014 and started planning this book project in Helsinki. It was a natural next step to ask other researchers who had done research on the Svea material or other courts of appeal to join the project, approaching the Svea Court from various perspectives. Since the work the svea court of appeal in the early modern period 14 1 Petrén, Sture – Jägerskiöld, Stig – Nordberg, Tord O:son 1964. 2 Hirschfeldt, Johan 2002 pp. 14-15. 3 Abrahamsson, Olle 2014 p. 109: “Jubileumsskriftens huvudsyfte är alltså att ställa dagens och morgondagens frågor under debatt. Det är en klok redaktionell utgångspunkt, särskilt som Svea hovrätts tidiga historia redan är utomordentligt väl dokumenterad av bland andra hovrättspresidenten Sture Petrén och professor Stig Strömholm i anslutning till hovrättens 350- respektive 375-årsjubileum.” Preface
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=