danish courts of appeal uniformity was both a consequence of equity and a prerequisite for the system of appeals that assumed its form in the institutionalization of the Royal Court that took place mainly after the Reformation. This institutionalization and the final carrying through of ahierarchical system did not change the circumstances for the judges appointed at the lower courts, but it meant that scholarly knowledge to some extent began to be seen in the system: As from the Reformation, the judges appointed to take a seat at the superior provincial courts and the Royal Court (and from1661 the Supreme Court) were expected to have finished some kind of university studies, usually from universities abroad. Those judges working at the provincial courts mainly came from the lower nobility while those passing sentences at the Royal Court usually were of the higher nobility. Often the judges of both the lower and the superior courts had family connections to former judges, sometimes forming almost a family dynasty of public officers.And both groups received a rather small pay, often being exempted from taxation, and thus they had to have another income, i.e. the task of being a judge was not a full-time occupation – and, the office was, at least for those having enough money, more an honorary office than a necessity. Against this background, Jørgen Bilde’s complaint is not that surprising. The judges were unlettered, and often they concentrated on many other things than their tasks as royal officers. Although learned law played an increasing role at the university in Copenhagen during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it was never connected to real life and law in practice before around 1800 – not even following the king’s declaration of 1736 that future local legal officers had to have a legal degree from the university in order to meet the demands on a royal legal official. Changing old habits and traditions by introducing new ways of thinking such as rational natural law or Roman law takes a long time, and it was not until 1810, when it was declared that judges functioning at the superior courts should have also a law degree, that things really changed. Since then, a more professional corps of judges took over, not having their origin in the local society where they passed sentences. Not 272
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