Gustav Adolf”.22 After its establishment, we are told, “[f]airness and equitable treatment for all the citizens throughout the nation became a reality.”23 More modestly, the first court of appeal seems to have been a success story as several other similar tribunals were established later.24 The Court of Appeal for Finland was founded in Turku (Åbo) in 1623, Dorpat (Tartu in present-day Estonia) in the Baltic province of Livonia in 1630, Göta (in Jönköping) in Southern Sweden in 1634, and Greifswald, Swedish since 1655, for the German territories. Another court of appeal for the eastern part of the realm (Northern Finland) was established in Vaasa (Vasa) in 1776.25 Even after the establishment of other regional courts of appeal, the Svea Court remained the leading primus inter pares as the oldest and most prestigious of these.26 The courts of appeal thus became “the pivots of legal life”27 in Sweden. The significance of the events of 1614 must be seen against the “judicial crisis” theory proposed in some research on the Svea court. In his 1966 article, Sture Petrén has described the establishment of the Court of Appeal as a reaction to a crisis in the Swedish legal culture, arguing that the reign of King Charles IX(de facto r. 1599 – 1611) was spent in “great internal 22 Ahnlund, Nils 1932 p. 185: “Rättegångsreformen är utan tvivel en av de betydelsefullaste inre tilldragelserna under Gustav Adolfs regering.” 23 Peterson, Gary Dean 2007 p. 129. 24 Cf. Roberts, Michael 1953 p. 267, considered the establishment of other courts of appeal as a sign of the failure of the reform,“[a]bove all, the intention of centralizing the highest justice in the court was not realized. […] The relationship of Svea Hovrätt to these new courts was not clearly defined; and thus in effect the idea of unifying the central administration of justice was not carried out.” 25 For brief textbook mentions of the Swedish courts of appeal, see, e.g., Inger, Göran 1986 p. 71. For the Turku court, see, especially Melander, K.R. 1936 andTurun hovioikeus 1623 31/10 1973 =Åbo hovrätt 1623 31/10 1973, and for Göta, see, e.g., Thunander, Rudolf 1993. For the later Vaasa court, see Vepsä, Iisa 2009. 26 However, it is occasionally forgotten in the literature that although the Svea Court of Appeal was the oldest royal court of appeal, the 1614 Judicature Ordinance takes cognisance of the already existing ducal courts of appeal. According to the final wording of the Ordinance, the new royal court and “supreme judgement” (öfwerste Doom) heard all legally wagered causes from all the ducal hoffrätter or high courts according to the donations, all lagman’s courts and town courts of the kingdom, the Provincial Council (Landzrådh) of Estonia, the town courts of Narva and Tallinn (both in present-day Estonia), 13 Article, Rättegångs-Ordinantie (1614), Kongl. stadgar, ed. Schmedeman, p. 134. See also the negotiations with the Dowager Queen Kristina and Duke Johan at the Diet of Örebro in 1614, Svenska riksdagsakter, 1. series, 2:1, ed. Ahnlund, pp. 398-410. 27 Letto-Vanamo, Pia 1991 p. 34. the svea court of appeal in the early modern period 26
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