Abstract

What happened to criminal procedure in Livonia during the Swedish period? And to what extent is the development specifically linked to Sweden, or to a European developement more generally? Livonia became part of Sweden through the Truce of Altmark in 1629, after having belonged to Poland for almost 70 years (1561–1629). The Livonian Confederation, dissolved in 1561 as a result of the Polish-Swedish war, had been a loose entity consisting of five relatively independent units (the lands of the Livonian Order, the Archbishopric of Riga, and the Bishoprics of Courland, Dorpat, and Osel-Wiek), which were also internally anything but effectively centralised. The lack of centralisation had brought independence to the local land-owning nobility, and the tradition had very much survived the Polish period. The tradition of the nobility’s great independence continued in the Swedish period, not the least because Swedish noblemen now held high stakes themselves, having been enfeoffed on large estates in the conquered Livonia as rewards for their war services. Their position was, therefore, considerably stronger than that of the nobility in Sweden proper. Another facet adding to the Livonian nobility’s independence was that the province was never incorporated into the Swedish Realm, which comprised only Sweden and Finland. This meant that the Livonians were not represented in the Swedish Diet, the local Ritterschaft holding its own Landtag instead.1

Highlights

  • What happened to criminal procedure in Livonia during the Swedish period? And to what extent is the development linked to Sweden, or to a European developement more generally? Livonia became part of Sweden through the Truce of Altmark in 1629, after having belonged to Poland for almost 70 years (1561–1629)

  • Their position was, considerably stronger than that of the nobility in Sweden proper. Another facet adding to the Livonian nobility’s independence was that the province was never incorporated into the Swedish Realm, which comprised only Sweden and Finland. This meant that the Livonians were not represented in the Swedish Diet, the local Ritterschaft holding its own Landtag instead.[1]

  • The accusatorial principle remained, in theory, primarily in the ius commune, in practice the inquisitorial procedure gained the upper hand in criminal procedure in much of Central Europe by the beginning of the early modern period

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Summary

Introduction

What happened to criminal procedure in Livonia during the Swedish period? And to what extent is the development linked to Sweden, or to a European developement more generally? Livonia became part of Sweden through the Truce of Altmark in 1629, after having belonged to Poland for almost 70 years (1561–1629). Esmein claimed that the accusatorial procedure, “a remnant of the past”, was rarely used after the fourteenth century It gradually lost ground, and the Ordinance of 1670 was wholly dominated by the inquisitorial procedure.[8] For the German lands, Karl Härter has shown using court records that the accusatorial procedure vanished in some parts of Kurmainz, probably soon after the introduction of Carolina and at the latest by the late sixteenth century.[9] the accusatorial principle remained, in theory, primarily in the ius commune, in practice the inquisitorial procedure gained the upper hand in criminal procedure in much of Central Europe by the beginning of the early modern period. The inquisitorial mode of criminal proceedings could not fully develop without an effective corps of trained legal professionals staffing the courts France clearly met both these criteria, as did some areas in Germany and Italy as well, being able to oust the active plaintiff in criminal affairs by the seventeenth century. Livonia had or at least soon developed a legal profession, but its loosely structured political organisation was not capable of forcing an effective legal procedure on its nobility

The Livonian criminal procedure
Settling criminal cases
The official prosecutors
Conclusions
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