Legal Learning of Various Kinds: Swedish Court of Appeal Judges in the Seventeenth Century

Abstract

This chapter discusses those judges of the Swedish Svea Court of Appeal (founded 1614) who had no academic legal learning, and their ways of gaining legal literacy. While the Svea Court of Appeal strove to find educated judges, the lack of learned lawyers in early seventeenth-century Sweden meant that in the beginning it had to contend itself with some of the judges only having practical experience of the law. This chapter presents a case study of four such judges during the seventeenth century. In addition, the education of noble judges of the court is taken up. Finally, the situation of the Svea Court of Appeal is set into the comparative context of higher courts in Europe.