courts of appeal in norway ever, Næss argues that the Lawman, at least in more complicated matters, regularly was involved by these courts and acted, if not as a formal judge, so at least as an informal adviser.101 Against this background an important, but official, function of the appellate court judges was to review the reasoning of these courts. As the appellate judges would often lack the special knowledge and experience that were typically found in these specialized bodies, they were required to apply the law more literally or to fall back on universal principles of law, in particular natural law. It is therefore not surprising to observe that natural law as a source of law became more important in the argumentation of the appellate courts than it was in rulings of lower level courts, including the specialized courts. Together with rational natural law, ideas of the Enlightenment came to Denmark and Norway in the eighteenth and nineteenth century and caused another change in expectation towards the law, its philosophical foundations and its institutionalized practices. Legal certainty was now regarded as a prerequisite for social peace and security. The same could be said for the principle of equality before the law. Particularly Christian Thomasius pointed out the significance of these ideas for the organization of the courts and the education of the judges. In Denmark and Norway his ideas were introduced by his disciple Andreas Høyer who also took the first steps towards the establishment of a juridical exam in 1736. Høyers Juridisk Collegiumcontains the first systematic presentation of procedural law in the realm.102 In this book and other publications103 he makes unmistakably clear that the application of the law on all levels should rest in the hands of a legally trained elite consisting of state officials, loyal to the king and part of his administration. From now on the prevailing ideal of the modern legal system was that judicial decisions should be made and reviewed by professionally educated and specialized 101 Næss, Hans Eyvind, 2014 p. 43 f. This changed after the implementation of absolutism and the consloidation for the Danish-Norwegian Monarchy in the 1660s. From now on especially the military jurisdiction concerning all kinds of disiplinary matters was strictly separated from the civil jurisdiction. 102 Høyer, Andreas 1764, Copenhagen, part II chap. 5 p. 27 which contains a description of the system of appeal in both Denmark and Norway. 103 Høyer, Andreas 1737. 304
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