In the Shadows of Absolutism

Abstract

This article investigates the peculiar development of Denmark’s criminal justice administration during the nineteenth century. Despite the conceptualization of a modernized criminal justice system in the liberal constitution of 1849, the inquisitorial principle persisted in criminal trials until 1919, positioning Denmark as one of Europe’s most regressive nations in this regard. This article seeks to analyse this delay in reform by scrutinizing the operational aspects of the criminal justice system. It contends that Commission Courts, originating from the era of absolutism, were seen as necessary to combat crime (particularly in rural areas where local policing was inadequate) and a desirable political tool for the Danish government. There were thus concrete and practical reasons why modernization was postponed. It is only by examining the practical operation of the law within its social, political, and cultural contexts that the practical manifestation of power can be analysed.