marju luts-sootak to continue working in Livonian courts. In the confirmation of this point of accord, it is stated that the Swedish subjects who had been working at Livonian courts were to be allowed to leave together with the Swedish garrison, and that they would be helped in every way with the transportation of their belongings. With its independent legal and court system, the Livonian capital Riga is largely excluded from the present article, but it is worth a mention that its capitulation contains similar points concerning the maintenance of all existing courts and the inviolability of working court personnel. Articles to the same effect were also included in the capitulation of the Pärnu garrison. In all capitulations, it is specified that German must remain the official working language of the courts. The Estonian estates and towns capitulated to the Russian Tsar Peter the Great on similar conditions. With the 1721 peace treaty of Nystad, the war came to an end, and the Swedish side promised in its turn to confirm the 1710 agreements between the Russian ruler and the Baltic estates. This is also the reason why the respective articles of the Nystad peace treaty were later mostly published together with the capitulations.38 The transfer of Livonia under the Russian rule should serve as an affirmation that the originally Swedish court system in Livonia did indeed persist also in the Tsarist Russian period that began with the capitulations of 1710. Furthermore, it was to remain the same in all its respects. The Russian ruler gave its approval to everything: the court organisation, the procedure law and the substantive law inherited from both the Swedish era and the earlier periods of Baltic history. zu welcher die in Liefland nach allen Craysen gewohniglichen Unter- und Ober-Instanzen heylsahmlich in ihren itzigen Gliedern und bedienten conserviret und aus der Noblesse des landes, und theils aus andern wohlgeschickten Eingebohrnen auch sonst meritirten personen Teutscher nation allzeit ergäntzet und bestellt warden …“. Schirren, Carl (ed.) 1865 p. 38. 38 Artikel 9, 10, 11, 12 des Nystädter Friedens vom 30. Aug. 1721. In: Schirren, Carl (ed.) 1865 pp. 115-117; Winkelmann, Eduard (ed.) 1865 pp. 109-110. 227 The continuities and changes in the Swedish court and appeal system in Livonia during the eighteenth century
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=