the swedish court and appeal system Likewise, the subordination of the Livonian High Court did not include the part in Livonia which possibly could have been the source of the largest number of court cases. The Livonian capital Riga had been transferred to Sweden already in 1621. Although the town had been forced to capitulate on military threat, King Gustavus Adolphus had confirmed its extensive privileges and autonomy.28 Next to Stockholm, Riga was the second-largest town in the state of Sweden and, as an old Hanseatic Centre, arguably even more important as far as trade was concerned. Appellations to the decisions made by the magistrate of Riga, however, were to pass by the highest court in Livonia and go directly to the King of Sweden. Of course, in reality such cases were not handled by the king himself, but rather by kings court, by the Svea Court of Appeal in Stockholm. In this sense, the status of the Riga magistrate was similar to the higher courts of the province Estonia: the Higher Land Court (in German: Oberlandgericht) of Estonia and the magistrate of Reval. In the case of Riga, the right of appellation to the Svea Court of Appeal was seen as an honorable privilege which freed the important town from subordination to the Livonian governor-general29 and the highest court of Livonia. The apellation right was rather imposed on the Estonian courts.30 The Livonian High Court was yet different from all of them, since it had no right of appellation either to the king or to his own high court. Yet it was possible to contest the decisions made by the Livonian High Court. Beneficium revisionis gave the king and his court in Stockholm the right to review, on request, any decision made by any court, including the Livonian High Court. Pihlajamäki argues that such review can, in practice, be considered similar to the Roman canonical appellation procedure.31 28 About the capitulation of Riga and the conditions attached thereto in 1621, as well as about the immediately following disputes and quarrels on several levels until 1629, see: Liljedahl, Ragnar 1933 pp. 72-174. Disputes around the confirmation of the privileges and the concrete prerogatives of Riga continued throughout the Swedish era, see Loit, Aleksander 2005 passim. 29 So Mettig, Constantin 1897 p. 328. 30 See Bunge, Freidrich Georg von 1874, pp. 193-195, 223-224. 31 Pihlajamäki, Heikki 2014 p. 219-220. 224
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