preface – mia korpiola 15 started, the project group has been even more convinced of the merits and value of conducting more research on the earlier history of the Court instead of feeling inhibited by preconceived notions that it had been exhausted by the 350th anniversary book, further research by Stig Jägerskiöld,4 and a number of articles mainly from the period between and during the two World Wars.5 Rather, our shared opinion was that the vast archives of one of the most historical courts of Sweden had been relatively seldom used in legal history research. Indeed, the material for the period 1614 –1948 alone occupies 4.8 shelf kilometres according to Hirschfeldt.6 Yet, despite its potential, there are relatively few modern legal history studies that have focused on the material of the Svea Court of Appeal. Maria Ågren’s book on the seventeenth-century practice of the court regarding the evolution of the institution of ancient usage (urminnes hävd) is one of the few.7 Another significant study is Elsa Trolle Önnerfors’s recent book on the praxis of the Svea Court in the law of succession and testamentary litigation in the latter part of the seventeenth century.8 Several other Swedish courts of appeal have also merited attention. Rudolf Thunander’s important book on the practice in the criminal cases of the Göta Court of Appeal was published two decades ago,9 while Iisa Vepsä’s study on the establishment and first decades of the Vaasa Court10 and Heikki Pihlajamäki’s work on the Dorpat (present-day Tartu) Court represent more recent research.11 We also knew, based on our own knowledge, partly of the Svea archive, partly of other related materials such as other Swedish courts of appeal, that there was no end to the research opportunities that this monumental court archive could give rise to even after the ravages of fires and archival pruning.12 Admittedly, when the project was started, a broader chronological scope up until the twentieth century was planned. However, as 4 E.g., Jägerskiöld, Stig 1963. 5 E.g., Afzelius, Ivar 1914 pp. 171-183; Almquist, J.E. 1940 pp. 468-478; Petrén, Sture 1945 pp. 171-184; Petrén, Sture 1947 pp. 1-25. 6 Hirschfeldt, Johan 2002 p. 16. 7 Ågren, Maria 1997. 8 Trolle Önnerfors, Elsa 2013. See also Korpiola, Mia 2007 pp. 153-179. 9 Thunander, Rudolf 1993. 10 Vepsä, Iisa 2009; Vepsä, Iisa 2012 pp. 499-524. 11 Letto-Vanamo, Pia – Pihlajamäki, Heikki 2002 pp. 129-146; Pihlajamäki, Heikki 2003 pp. 197-213; Pihlajamäki, Heikki 2007 pp. 62-80. 12 E.g., Landahl, Sten 1950 pp. 199-224.
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