part iv • intellectual legal history • søren koch worked on the code for almost 47 years, the result was considered by both judges and legal scholars to be insufficient to cope with the challenges of earlymodern society.97 But as we have seen, this was not the primary aim of the legislator. Another important feature of this legislative compilation was that it was printed, and so could be distributed much faster. The new official version was already in use in all local and regional courts in Norway in 1609.98 This guaranteed that the wording of the code was identical throughout the kingdom. The compilation of legislative material published in this new format thus had an enormous impact on the application law in a formative period of the Norwegian legal culture, not least because many of its provisions were reused in the Norwegian Code of 1687. Legal historians have been reluctant to accept the idea that the (new) Danish Code of 1683 (DL) was a compilation, and occasionally expressly oppose it.99 This is correct regarding the final product; however, analysing the way it came into being, one has to acknowledge that considerable parts of the DL were produced by compiling older legislation. Parts of the law were ‘recycled’. Considering the mandates of the various law commissions, this is not surprising. The absolutist regime gave three reasons for the enactment of theDL: to collect existing legislation in a new code; to harmonize the law in both kingdoms; and to bring this harmonized body of legislation into line with the new political ideology.100 Reforming substantive law was not part of the mandate. Not even the commissions’ learned lawyer considered themselves called to attempt a scholarly reconstruction of the law. Once again, legal rules enacted in mediaeval times under very different social, economic, and political conditions were compiled, often with minor or even comprehensive amendments. This accounted for the majority of the provisions in the DL. 97 Ibid. v–vi. The first motion to revise and translate the Code of the Realm under the supervison and authority of King Christian III was issued in 1557; ibid. xxi. 98 Hallager & Brandt 1855, xxiii. 99 Ditlev Tamm, Retshistorie (2nd edn, Copenhagen: DJØF, 2005), 213–214; Iuul 1954, 16 ff. 100 Nikolai Prebensen & Hjalmar Smith, introduction to eid., Forarbeiderne til Kong Christian den Femtes Norske Lov (Oslo: J. Chr. Gundersens, 1887). 222
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=