159 Summary The Struggle between Natural Law and Roman Law in Sweden BY PROFESSOR HEIKKI YLIKANGAS This article attempts to explain why Roman law, which possessed great authority in Sweden in the middle of the seventeenth century, began increasingly to lose Its foothold during the 1680’s. In its stead came natural law, which later, by the eighteenth century, had superceded Roman lawto the extent that instruction in the latter had ceased at the university. The flourishing of Roman lawcoincided with the period of aristocratic power. Because Roman law was used as a subsidiary source of law, and the higher courts were simultaneously granted broad powers of appeal, the aristocracy with the help of the judicial systemwas able to conduct a domestic policy which was extremely advantageous. The situation was modified completely during the 1680’s. The lower nobility and the untitled civil servants allied themselves with the lower estates. This alliance made the King absolute, and the goal was to abolish the enfeoffments to the Crown, at the same time that the courts were forbidden to refer to foreign law, and a strict interpretation of the lawwas emphasized. Through the identification of natural law with domestic law, the former became the ideological guarantor of the new groups. When the policy of appointment began to see to it that the judges of the higher court were comprised of adherents to absolutism and the Reduction, the position of the aristocracy was significantly weakened. This group lost their enfeoffments to the Crown and their civil service positions to the lower nobility and the untitled civil servants. According to this interpretation natural law and Roman law comprised the means with whose aid the higher nobility on theone hand and the lower nobility and untitled civil servants on the other hand attempted to defend or to strengthen their positions.
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