per andersen ceedings at the city court. Beside the open town court, the more closed and elitist court of the town council (rådstueret) developed through the fourteenth century. Whereas the town bailiff presided over the town court, the mayor(s) and the town council constituted the court of the town council, which functioned as both a court in civil cases and – in some cases – a court of appeals to the town court. However, in the fourteenth century as well as in later centuries, no clear distinction has been found between the two courts.11 By an order of January 1682, the offices of mayor and councillors were abolished in all minor towns, restricting the public authority to the royally appointed town bailiff. The court of the town council in these towns also disappeared or was reduced to a police court, again under the jurisdiction of the town bailiff.12 Another additional local court appearing in the middle of the thirteenth century was the birketing.13 The birketing can be explained as a near-equivalent of the English manor court, as a peculiar court, due to the special division in Denmark between noble and royal lands. Thus, we might find inhabitants of the same village belonging either to abirketing or to a district court, depending on the rights of the nobleman in question. Around 1660, Denmark had approximately 120 noble peculiar courts. After the introduction of absolutism this number grew rapidly until 1849 when a democratic constitution was introduced. After that, the abolition of the birketing was obvious, since the deal was that the owner of a peculiar (birk) had the privileges of a provincial court, which meant that a case from the peculiar court could only be appealed to the Royal Court (from 1661 the Supreme Court). In the rural areas, everybody but the people living in the small district of a peculiar used the district court as their court of first instance, except the nobility in cases concerning honour and life, which were in the exclusive competence of the supreme Royal Court, and of course this difference could not be accepted following the introduction of the constitution in 1849. 11 Andersen, Per 2011 pp. 356-398. 12 Knudsen, Pernille Ulla 2001 pp. 191-231, 373-386. 13 Lerdam, Henrik 2004 pp. 93-98. 251
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