danish courts of appeal the provincial court were equal courts whose common aim was to guarantee that a sentence was passed and executed – and the power wielded by the magnates who were present at the provincial court probably put extra pressure on the convicted person to abide by the decision of the court. In addition, a sentence of outlawry passed by the provincial court covered a wider geographical area than a sentence passed by the district court. Traditionally, criminal and civil cases were heard in both the district and the provincial court. The provincial court dealt with serious transgressions against the law, such as murder, malicious damage and refusal of payment of fines, i.e. transgressions that might result in outlawry. The local district court dealt with less serious transgressions, such as wounding, theft and the like. In some cases, however, it appeared to have been possible to raise a case at either court, but it was not a first and second court of instance, in which one could take an appeal from the first instance, the district court, to the second instance, the provincial court. According to the Danish medieval provincial laws there was simply no appeal from one court to another, but the two courts were there to ensure that a sentence would be passed. If an agreement about what the law prescribed was not reached at the district court, the case could be transferred to the provincial court. Therefore the Danish legal system was in its medieval form a horizontal, not a hierarchical, system.10 Thus, the local district court was the court which most people in rural Denmark would visit – if ever they were in need of bringing a case before a court – in order to sue another party, but from the middle of the thirteenth century two additional local courts appeared to supplement the existing system. One was the town court (byting) whichwas established in newly founded towns, older and now growing towns and/or boroughs with increasing populations.While we do not know how the provincial court and the local district court were managed at that time, it was obviously the town bailiff, appointed by the king or the town owner, who led the legal pro10 Andersen, Per 2011 pp. 84-191. 250
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