In 'Conquest and the Law' in Swedish Livonia (ca. 1630-1710), Heikki Pihlajamäki offers an exciting account of the law in seventeenth-century Livonia, conquered by Sweden. The volume demonstrates how the differences in legal cultures affected the Livonian judiciary and legal procedure in the region.
This book has been long coming. The initial work was a project to examine the archives of the Livonian High Court (Sw. 'hovrätt'), one of the oldest high courts established in the Swedish realm in the seventeenth century. It soon became evident, however, that the functions of the High Court could not be understood without setting them in a larger context – that of the entire new judiciary which was emerging after Sweden had conquered Livonia. As is so often the case in scholarship, the end product looks rather different to that which had been envisaged at the outset.
Author(s): Heikki Pihlajamäki
Series: The Northern World. North Europe and the Baltic c. 400-1700 A.D. Peoples, Economies and Cultures, 77
Publisher: Brill
Year: 2017
Language: English
Pages: 308
City: Leiden
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
1.1 The Research Questions
1.2 Archival Material
1.3 Previous Research
1.4 The Structure of the Book
2. The Outset: The Livonian and Swedish Legal Orders at the Time of the Swedish Conquest
2.1 Livonian Administration, Judiciary, and the Legal Procedure before the Swedish Conquest
2.2 Livonian Law and the Legal Sources: The European Context
2.3 Swedish Law before the Conquest of Livonia
2.4 Summary
3. The Reorganisation of the Livonian Judiciary under the Swedish Rule
3.1 The Alternatives: Colonial Systems and Their Judicial Organisations
3.2 Sweden’s Other Overseas Possessions: Organizing the Judiciary in Estonia and the 'Reich'
3.3 Reforming the Livonian Judicial Structure
3.4 The Personnel in Charge: Judges, Lawyers, and Administrators
3.5 Summary
4. The Procedure in the Livonian Courts of the Swedish Era
4.1 The Classification of Cases into Civil and Criminal
4.2 The Civil Procedure in the Lower Courts
4.3 The Criminal Procedure in the Lower Courts
4.4 The Cases and the Procedure at the High Court of Dorpat
4.5 The Revision Procedure
4.6 Summary: Legal Procedure in Seventeenth-Century Livonia
5. Transplanting Swedish Law? The Legal Sources at the Livonian Courts
5.1 The Theory of Legal Spheres
5.2 The Ius Commune in the Livonian Court Records
5.3 The Influence of Swedish Law in Livonia
5.4 The Livonian Legal Sources
5.5 Divine Law and Natural Law
5.6 The Theory and the Practice of Legal Sources: Europe and Livonia
6. Conclusions
6.1 The Starting Point: Livonian and Swedish Law before the Conquest
6.2 The Organization of the Judiciary in Swedish Livonia
6.3 The Judicial Procedure
6.4 Legal Sources in the Courts of Swedish Livonia
Sources and Bibliography
Archival Sources
Printed Sources
Literature
Index
