sören koch it remain mandatory for the lawman to give his ruling alongside eight, and later just four, layman serving as co-judges.68 These cases were presumably identical with those the sorenskriver had to judge together with the jury of laymen (lagrette) in first instance. We have seen that some cases had to be appealed before they could lead to execution. On the other hand, in some occasions an appeal was explicitly prohibited by the law. That was especially the case for minor cases of limited economic importance or where the reason for a trial was an action that was regarded as unlawful, like a duel.69 Legal cultural changes on the institutional level can also be illustrated by looking at alterations in legal methods and other institutionalized procedures. Once again alterations in the legal practitioner’s space of experience (Erfahrungsraum) caused modified expectation regarding the content and the function of law (Erwartungshorizont).70 For example, during the seventeenth century the procedure in the appellate courts was, in accordance with the procedure in all other courts in the Norwegian realm, generally accusatorial.71 Due to a change in perception of the philosophical foundation of the state at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the idea of establishing control over the citizens through all state organs gained ground. The state was now no longer seen as a mere safeguard against social instability or civil war, but as an instrument to further the perfection or happiness of the citizens.72 With the decree concerning the administration of justice from 1751 some elements of an inquisitorial procedure were formally introduced in the Danish legislation.73 68 See Decree of 3. June 1796 chap.vVIII §24, see also § 36 (limiting the number of co-judges to two in specific cases). 69 For an overview of the cases and materials that were excluded from appeal and the legal foundation of these rules, see Nissen, Martinus 1770 part II chap. 5 § 3 p. 151. 70 This terminology was introduced by Koselleck, Reinhard, 2004 p. 15 ff. 71 Hagerup, Francis 1918 p. 57. 72 Leading figures of these new secular and rational natural law theories were ChristianWolff and Christian Thomasius and their Danish disciples Andreas Hojer and Petter Kofod Ancher. 73 Cf. Royal Decree of 21. May 1751 (Anlangende hvad der ved Deliquent-Sagers Drift og Udførsel i Danmark og Norge bør i Agt tages) [Concerning what to be taken into account in criminal procedure]. In the legal historical debate there are different opinions concerning the importance of this decree, see e.g. Krogh, Tyge 2000 p. 69 (who sees in the decree from 1751 297
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