suum cuique tribuere – elsa trolle önnerfors 175 clarified that crimes committed by nobleman should be investigated by the nearest local district court or town court, but the sentence should be passed by the nobleman’s peers in the court of appeal.481 Noblemen who served in the army had their forum in the military courts, and were to be judged by the Articles of War.482 When it came to other disputes, the extent of the noble forum privilege was not settled or fixed. Occasionally, it happened that the courts of appeal handled disputes as a first instance even though the type of dispute was not explicitly mentioned in the Ordinance of Judicial Procedure. For example, in the 1670s, the court of appeal in Jönköping settled a dispute about the right to use a noble family name on its own initiative.483 The Svea Court of Appeal advocated the idea that it was primarily the right of the ordinary courts (including the court of appeal itself) to settle legal disputes. The court of appeal particularly stressed that the higher court judges were educated in law, and therefore better fitted to hear all kinds of disputes. To some extent, the jurisdiction of the appeal court competed with other higher special courts, for example, with the jurisdiction of the other branches of the administration, especially in relation to the central government departments, the Boards (Sw. kollegierna). The Svea Court of Appeal had no problem with the Board of the Treasury handling fiscal cases or the Board of War settling military disputes,484 but the appeal court was quite averse to other branches of the administration trying to expand their jurisdiction since this would lead to an inequitable and fragmented legal practice: “[m]ultiplicatio jurisdictionumär ett pabulum confusionis” (“too many jurisdictions creates confusion”) was an argument that the court of appeal frequently used in these discussions.485 Even in relation to the jurisdiction of the church, the appeal court emphasized the special and trained ability of the general courts to solve and settle legal matters: the secular jurisdiction was a guarantee of the rule of law.486 481 The 1614 Ordinance of Judicial Procedure, paragraph 14, Kongl. stadgar, ed. Schmedeman, pp. 138-139. 482 The 1614 Ordinance of Judicial Procedure, paragraph 14 in fine, Kongl. stadgar, ed. Schmedeman, p. 139. 483 Bendz, Gunnar 1935, p. 138. 484 Jägerskiöld, Stig 1964 pp. 228-231. 485 Jägerskiöld, Stig 1964 p. 230. 486 Jägerskiöld, Stig 1964 p. 232.
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