the svea court of appeal in the early modern period 166 During the seventeenth century, the society in general and the court system in particular were characterized by the statutory privileges of the four Estates. Different types of dispute arose in the various Estates, and each group wrestled with its own problems. The principle of suum cuique tribuere enabled the various groups in society to interpret the concepts of ownership and property in their own ways. To have precisely the same perception of rules was not equally appropriate for all groups and actors. Different positions of power and spheres of influence coloured the various interpretations and perceptions of law and regulation at the time. Equally, there was not simply one valid set of rules, but several.446 The early seventeenth century saw the establishment of more distinct court organization in Sweden. The privileges meant that each Estate had its own court (forum privilegiatum) based on the belief that a defendant should be tried by his peers, according to thesuum cuique tribuere principle. In the thirteenth century provincial codes, the peasantry already had its forum established in the rural district courts (Sw. häradsrätt), a court that was in charge of all legal matters. From the same period, the burghers handled their disputes in the town courts, and the clergy in the chapters. One of the privileges of the nobility was that members of this Estate did not have to have their internal disputes settled by the rural, peasant-dominated district courts or by the town courts. Instead, from 1614 onwards, the nobility had the right to turn directly to the Svea Court of Appeal, newly established in Stockholm. The origin of this noble procedural privilege was to be found in the nobility’s medieval right to direct access to the king’s justice. This in turn had its roots in the medieval system with royal or noble castles having their own jurisdictions (Sw. borgrätt) which were closely linked to the king. This was a forum privilege found all over Europe. The system with castles having their own special courts was abolished in Sweden during the seventeenth century however.447 The right of the nobility to use a higher court as the first instance was not a distinctive Swedish phenomenon in the early modern period. Similar privileges and systems could be found all over Europe. In general, the judicial privileges were the right of the nobility as a whole. They were to be regarded as corporate rights of the Estate rather than rights given to specific families or certain types of noblemen. 446 Trolle Önnerfors, Elsa 2014 pp. 75-95. 447 Modéer, Kjell Åke 1970 passim.
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