244 Summary Law and the Administration of Justice in Seventeenth Century Sweden BY PROFESSOR STICJÄGERSKIÖLD The seventeenth century is certainly themost significant for the development of Swedish law and the organizationof Swedish society. With the establishment of the Svea court of appeal {Sveu hovrätt)m1614, the Swedish court systemgained the beginnings of a permanent organization for the purposeof exercisinghigher jurisdiction. Shortly thereafter the Göta, Åbo, and Dorpat courts of appeal were established. These courts were to assess »the King’s judgement». There lay, however, a conflict between this task and the inherited viewthat the King was thehighest judgewithinthe realm. Whenhe foundit suitable, Gustav II Adolph, therefore, claimed the right to »review» the verdict of the courts of appeal. (No right of revision existed, however, only the possibility). The question was long debated as towhether or not a special, independent right of revision ought to be acknowledged. The alternative was the creation of a more permanent organization for the royal judiciary authority. After several different attempts at reform thedevelopment resulted in granting thesupremeright of judgement tothe King within the Council (Justitierevisionen) or, in his absense, the council alone, in which case a preparatory court was added called the lower review of justice {nedre justitierevisionen). Thus a system of courts had been established in the country which consisted of four courts. Within this organization the monarch’s possibility of participating in the administration of justice at the highest level was guaranteed. Thus it remained until the reform of 1909. At thesame timeseveral authorities weretrainedinadministrativeand judicial procedure, whose competence in relation to the ordinary courts was however never clearly established. Astatutewhich aimed at doingso became lawin 1734, RB 10—26, but is still the object of varying interpretations. During the seventeenth century the Swedish codes were completed by a rich jurisprudence. In the first place this occurred through a wide-spread acceptance
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