danish courts of appeal In time, the king enjoyed increased power locally to such a degree that, formally speaking, it was he that was to appoint or at least to recognise the increasingly autonomous judge. This, plus a concern for efficiency, led to royal power becoming increasingly involved in the stratification of a system of justice whereas prior to this only a few cases had reached the now institutionalized Royal Court. If local jurisdiction resided with the centre there would have been no reason to compete, and therefore royal concern increasingly focused on providing justice rather than using the legal system as an important part of the power-political struggle between central power and local and regional powers. The Royal Court thus in time developed from its beginnings as a marginal means of administration of justice introduced as a response to local and regional concerns into the final possibility for appeal in a system of courts administrated by central power.23 The evolution of a hierarchical legal system finally took shape following the Reformation which saw the king seizing more land and thus increasing his financial opportunities tremendously. This was symbolised by the institutionalisation of the king’s court as “the Royal Court” (Kongens Retterting). As the hierarchy of courts was established and the post-Reformation Royal Court developed into a general court of appeal, the limitations on summons outside the jurisdiction of the defendant disappeared. The reason for this was that the Royal Court became increasingly stationary in the sixteenth century and increasingly focused on Copenhagen, although this did not mean that the defendant could be sentenced under laws other than those valid for his province. Thus the most oftcited precedents at the seventeenth-century Royal Court were the medieval provincial laws and the royal recess from 1558, which incorporated 23 Tamm, Ditlev – Johansen, Jens Chr. V. 1992 pp. 73-100. 258 The Reformation: The final institutionalisation of a hierarchical legal system
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