the svea court of appeal in the early modern period 174 handle these matters in other countries.477 The forum privilege in the appeal courts for the foreign nobles was renewed in 1683.478 By the mid seventeenth century, the forum privilegiatumincluded the nobility’s civil disputes about such things as inheritance, wills, estates, probate inventories, guardianship, bankruptcy and separation of the common property of spouses. These were all legal fields that the nobility was especially eager to have influence on since all these legal matters in some way or another regulated property law and property rights. The nobility had both internal and external incentives for its use of the law as a means of promoting its property strategies.479 The forum privilege for the nobility in the Svea Court of Appeal enabled the Estate to influence the law-making and legal practice in a way that was not possible in the lower courts. The judges at the appeal court were educated lawyers and, in contrast to the lower courts, the courts of appeal had greater freedom to refer to and apply a wider variety of other legal sources than statutory law. The seventeenth century was also the time when professional lawyers took their place as the representatives of the parties to a case. Because of their legal training and the extensive jurisprudence on sources of law, professional lawyers were able to introduce new legal elements and new approaches into the Swedish legal system. These representatives played an increasingly important role in legal developments during the century and this was certainly valid for civil cases in the courts of appeal, where the parties themselves directed the process to a large extent.480 Furthermore, the forum privilege included certain types of criminal case, such as theft and defamation. In this respect, the formulation of the forum privilegiatumwas in conflict with the medieval laws, which stated that criminal crimes should be settled by the court in the area where the crime had been committed. The 1614 Ordinance of Judicial Procedure 477 Jägerskiöld, Stig 1964 p. 227. 478 Förklaring at the främmande som här i Riket wistas, och sig emot Duels-Placatet, eller annan Kongl. May:tz Lag och Förordningar förgripa, skola äfwen som Kongl. Mayt:z egne Undersåtare ansees och plichta, 15March 1683, printed inKongl. stadgar, ed. Schmedeman, p. 851. The forum privilege in the Swedish appeal courts for the foreign nobility was legally in force until 1896. 479 Korpiola, Mia 2007 p. 153. 480 Trolle Önnerfors, Elsa 2014 pp. 153-157.
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