the svea court of appeal in the early modern period 346 The research has revealed three clear tendencies taking place during the research period: the increase in education, education becoming domestic and careers becoming law-related. The increase in education took place from the mid-seventeenth century onwards, but the decrease in foreign education and the careers becoming more law-related instead of administrative can be dated to the first half of the eighteenth century. Although dealt with separately in this article, they are essentially part of the same phenomenon: the professionalization of the court. The fact that the changes did not occur overnight but were a fluctuating process is perhaps a testament to the fact that they did not happen because of any specific decision, but were rather the consequence of a slow change in the Swedish political sphere. In the early years of the court’s existence there was no sufficient pool of legally trained non-nobles, and the court had to make do with the men it could find. Therefore in the first decades it was the noble assessors, who had the best education. Studies abroad were necessary as local university education was not at the level of European universities. Travelling abroad also fitted naturally into the upbringing of noble youngsters. It took some time before the “learned assessors” could actually call themselves learned. All judges started to have a university education around the mid-seventeenth century. In 1734, the judges’ foreign education had declined distinctly. Since these were men who had attended university in the first years of the eighteenth century, the decline in study abroad appears roughly at the same time as the turn against foreign impulses during the absolutist reign. Some questions about educational issues still remain unclear. If there was a dire need for educated judges in the Svea Court of Appeal in its first two decades, why were not more foreign trained men recruited to the court? There were, for instance, plenty of Leiden-trained Swedish lawyers who never became appeals court judges. Of course, the Leiden students were also highly regarded in diplomatic tasks, which was another field in need of learned men. Some also worked at town courts, which – often facing cases concerning foreign merchants – were also in need of educated men.1032 Another question relating to the same issue arises: why did the Turku Court of Appeal (founded in 1623) have more educated judges, Conclusion
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