danish courts of appeal the organization of the Court was finally established. Proceedings had been conducted orally until then and the Court continued to maintain that tradition through a period when other legal arenas were opting to change to written treatment of cases. In 1795, under the absolutistic rule, it was pinpointed that it was not possible to try the decisions of the public magistration at the courts, and formally this rule was alive until the introduction of the liberal constitution in 1849. In reality, the possibility given in 1849 to test the decisions was not really in use before the twentieth century, the Supreme Court being the highest court due to the fact that Denmark never introduced a Constitutional court (Verfassungsgericht).57 During the political struggles between liberal and conservative parties in the second half of the nineteenth century, the Supreme Court was from time to time criticized for protecting and thus conserve the earlier (conservative) rules and ways of thinking. The impression was difficult to get rid off since sentences were often not communicating arguments pro et contra or very extensive and informative; this was not seen before later58 Anders Sandøe Ørsted, the “father” of Danish jurisprudence, who became judge at the Supreme Court in 1810, had already then argued to change this, commenting sentences in the law review he founded, aiming at making a connection between legal practice and legal theory and introducing international concepts to Danish law – but even Ørsted did not succeed in changing a conservative tradition founded in the absolutistic era.59 When, in 1730, chief administrative officer Jørgen Bilde complained that the acting judges of the country were “unlettered, partial, had bad intentions and in general were incompetent to perform as judges”, he was indeed right in one of his claims: The judges were unlettered; at least those passing sentences at the lower courts of the district, the peculiar or the 57 Tamm, Ditlev 2011b; Nørregaard, Georg 1961 pp. 302-343. 58 Tamm, Ditlev 2011c pp. 28-36; Christensen, Bent 1961 pp. 344-354. 59 Tamm, Ditlev 2011c pp. 27-28; Nielsen, Thøger 1961 pp. 534-538. 270 Summing up
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