general background – mia korpiola 25 19 RA, SH; HA, A1 a 1:1, sine pagina. 20 RA, SH; HA, A1 a 1:1, fol. 1. 21 Bure, Anders 1631, fol. B 2. he first recordbook of the Svea Court of Appeal describes Thow Axel Oxenstierna (1583 –1654), the Chancellor of Sweden, gave a “beautiful and wonderful oration” (een skön och härligh Oration) on 19 May 1614 to the noblemen and commoners who had assembled at the Castle of Stockholm for the commencement (ingång) of the activity of the recently established court. The authorization of the court, duly signed and sealed by the king, was then solemnly read as well as the names and oath of the judges waiting to be installed. At that juncture, each judge then present, starting with the court’s future president and the King’s judge-assignee (Doomhafwande), the experienced and authoritative Count Magnus Brahe (1564 – 1633), came forward, put a hand on the law book and took the sacred oath to do justice to everyone. During the following day, more judges and officials were publicly sworn in.19 On 22 May, the first law term of the court started officially with ten judges present, and they heard their first case.20 Thus, the first royal Court of Appeal or hovrätt in Stockholm started its activity. It was not then called the “Svea Court of Appeal” as nowadays, but was called by several rather different names, discussed more in detail in the next chapter. The most common of these was “konungslige hovrätt,” (lit. royal law court of the [King’s] court). For example, in his Orbis Arctoi, a Latin description of Sweden to the learned world, first published in 1626, Swedish official and cartographer Anders Bure (1571 – 1646) called the Svea Court of Appeal a “parliament or the supreme court of the province (Parlamento vel summo judicio regio) calledHoffrettenorKonungznämd.” The reform of the Swedish justice system through the establishment of the court in February 1614 has been called “without doubt one of the most significant internal occurrences during the reign [reign 1611 – 1632] of Introduction
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