the court of appeal as legal transfer – heikki pihlajamäki 239 lower court, who gave it out in its own name. In Dorpat, permission to use judicial torture was also issued by way of leuteration.647 The leuterationprocedure was light in Dorpat, often entailing no more than a summary revision of the lower court document, with judges only signingapprobat (“approves”) or consentio(“I consent”), and their name on the front cover of the lower court’s decision.648 The work could therefore sometimes be extremely quick, and the parties had no chance of commenting on the lower court decision. For instance, the Council of Arensburg (on the island of Ösel) had condemned Terriskiwi Michelstochter to death for infanticide and Daniel Sommer to a fine of 100 dalers for the same crime. The council decision was made on 7 December 1674. On 22 January 1675 the Court of Appeal reached its own decision. Interestingly, the woman’s punishment was made harsher in that her body was to be burned; the man’s fine, however, was reduced to 80dalers. When the reviewed case came from a lower court geographically close to the Court of Appeal, it could be extremely quick. Thus when the Land Court of Dorpat had on 23 April 1765 condemned both Siwert Hauss and Porman Knut Hinrich to death for separate crimes, Siwert for homicide and Porman for fratricide, their sentences were completely approved (in totum approbiret) on 1 May.649 Leuteration usually (but not necessarily) meant commuting death punishments to milder ones. This was the case in Livonia as well. In 16701672, the Dorpat Court of Appeal received 14 criminal cases from the lower courts. The cases represented a wide range of serious crimes (infanticide, manslaughter, uxoricide, theft, fornication and a soldier failing to obey orders). The number of serious criminal cases sent for review to the Court of Appeal from the lower courts varied somewhat; for instance, in 1675 (from January to September), 25 cases were reviewed. A little over twenty years later, the number of cases was larger, a total of 77, including 22 infanticide cases, six of sodomy, five of adultery, seven of homicide, seven of incest and seven of theft.650 647 For instance, EAA, 915/1/7, Pernauer Landgericht 1638 –1645, Johan Albrecht von Plato vs. Bractuß, 19 July 1645, fol. 201. 648 EAA, 915/1/4, Pernauer Landgericht 1641, fol. 75. 649 LVA, Akten des Livländischen Hofgerichts 1630 –1709, 109/1/11, Protocollae votarum 1672 –1675. 650 For instance, on 3 July 1672 the Court of Appeal commuted the decision of the Wenden Land Court of 5 May 1672 on the homicide case of Peter (no surname given) to de-
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