per andersen Apparently, the answers sent to the provincial court judges and to the central administration were honest and straightforward – and the picture emerging was not very promising for a central administration who wanted to change a more or less non-homogeneous and unlettered legal system into the opposite: Many of the judging bailiffs could not read or write, they were often drunk or acted prejudiced and several of them simply seemed to be mentally ill.4 This was the situation all over the country. But the situation seemed to be worst in the province of Jutland, just as Jørgen Bilde reported more than 40 years later. However, the problem was not solved by reducing the original approximately 600 local jurisdictions to approximately 300 after the central administration’s inquiries.5 According to Bilde, the situation could only be improved by combining fines for abuses with higher wages for the judges in general, but the central administration chose another solution instead: After repeating the investigation of the local legal officers’ competences, the central administration decided that time had come to demand that bailiffs/judges functioning at the lower, i.e. the local, courts needed legal education. Hence, in February 1736 the king declared that from now on the local legal officers should have a law degree from the university in Copenhagen in order to meet the demands on a royal legal official.6 This was late compared to many of the contemporary European kingdoms, but it was earlier than the nearest neighbour: Not before thirteen years later, in March 1749, the Danish-Norwegian demand was followed by a similar initiative in the kingdom of Sweden-Finland aiming at the same.7 In many ways the ordinance of 10 February 1736 marks a turning point in Danish legal history as some kind of education of persons with a legal position was now demanded. In 1736 the first step in professionalizing the legal system was taken; from then the jurists had a monopoly of acting as judges at the lower courts, but eventually they were allowed to the superior courts as lawyers and procurators; and from now on the 4 Andersen, Per 2010 pp. 121-122, 126-127 and 139-141. 5 Tamm, Ditlev 1989 pp. 122-123. 6 Love og Forordninger, vol. 2, pp. 349-356. Jørgensen, Poul Johs. 1936 pp. 89-114. 7 Almquist, Jan Eric 1946 pp. 186-194. 247
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