suum cuique tribuere – elsa trolle önnerfors 173 their decisions by majority vote. The judges were all learned in law, many of them having studied law at university in Sweden or abroad, or, in some cases, both.472 According to the Ordinance of Judicial Procedure, two types of case could be brought before the court of appeal: firstly, cases on appeal from the lower courts (Sw. vädjade mål), and secondly, cases in which the appeal court was the first instance (Sw. instämda mål). The latter consisted mainly of disputes involving members of the nobility. The Svea Court of Appeal became the privileged forum of the nobles and the first court instances for many, but not all, civil and criminal suits involving the nobility. This practice mirrored the suum cuique tribuere ideology, and the idea that nobles were to be judged only by their peers, since some two-thirds of the members of the court of appeal’s tribunal were noblemen.473 The older regulations on a privileged forum for the nobility had comprised criminal cases above all, but the privilege had expanded over time. In 1614, the forum privilege included disputes about the distribution of estates and landed property as well as criminal cases.474 The privilege recurred and expanded once again in the Privileges of the Nobility granted by the King Gustav II Adolf in 1617,475 and in the Ordinance for the House of the Nobility in 1626, as mentioned above. These regulations put the nobility in a position which the Estate would more or less maintain throughout the Age of Greatness.476 In 1650, Queen Christina extended theforum privilegiatumto include the foreign nobility living in the Swedish realm on the justification that it was reasonable and the usual way to 472 For further reading on the educational and career backgrounds of Svea Court of Appeal judges, see the contribution by Marianne Vasara-Aaltonen in this volume. 473 The 1614 Ordinance of Judicial Procedure, paragraph 5and 14, printed inKongl. stadgar, ed. Schmedeman, pp. 135 and 138-139. 474 The 1614 Ordinance of Judicial Procedure, paragraph 14, Kongl. stadgar, ed. Schmedeman, pp. 138-139. 475 The Privileges of the Nobility of 1617, paragraph 16, printed inKongl. stadgar, ed. Schmedeman, p. 167: “Så wele wij och här medh hafwa wåre godhe männ aff Ridderskapet och Adlelen privilegeret och benådet, at the icke skole wara förplichtade, at stå til rätta för någre liffzsaker, för mindre män än theras wederlijker; och intet godz heller någhen Egendom dömes någon Riddare eller Swen til eller ifrån, uthan aff Riiksnes Rådh, eller på Konungz reffsta tingh, som laghligen hållas kan medh mindre än ther kan wara medh jordsyner någhre parter emellan, och tå fullföljes ther medh som lagh sägher.” 476 The Ordinance for the House of the Nobility 1626, printed inSveriges Riddarhus: Ridderskapet och adeln och dess Riddarhus pp. 527-532; von Konow, Jan 2005 pp. 96-100.
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