New Approaches to Early Law in Scandinavia

During recent years, there has been a revival of interest in the early laws of Scandinavia. In this volume, several aspects of this field are presented and discussed, such as the introduction and development in medieval Denmark of the naefnd, a kind of 'jury', which replaced the ordeal. The Law of t [...]
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During recent years, there has been a revival of interest in the early laws of Scandinavia. In this volume, several aspects of this field are presented and discussed, such as the introduction and development in medieval Denmark of the naefnd, a kind of 'jury', which replaced the ordeal. The Law of the Halsingar (Halsingelagen) is analysed and found to comprise multiple layers, a mixture of obviously-old local laws and legal customs, together with new royal decrees, Church laws etc., and with close links with early Norwegian law and legal terminology. In one article the kristindomsbalkr ('Church Law', or 'Ecclesiastical Law Section') of the town law of Trondheim, Norway (the so-called Nidaross Bjarkeyjarrettr) and the provincial law of medieval Trondelag, Frostuingslog are compared. Different approaches to handling violence and homicide involving laymen and clerics in late medieval Norway are discussed, drawing on the recent discovery of register protocols of the Penitentiary at the Papal Curia. The Older and the Younger Law (Aldre Vastgotalagen and Yngre Vastgotalagen) are analysed from existing manuscripts, in an attempt to answer the question where the initiative came from to write the laws down. Several words for 'outlawry' in the Old Scandinavian languages are analysed, and the usage of the words in western Norway, Iceland and also in Anglo-Saxon England. One author chisels out a general theory of legal culture, aimed at showing how the introduction into Norwegian legal culture of three new elements (norm-producing, large-scale law-making; conflict-resolving juries; equity as idea of justice) together led to a major change in legal culture in medieval Norway. The final article focuses on homicide and wounding, and discusses the development of penal law in Denmark in the Middle Ages, attempting to explain that development in the light of both domestic conditions and foreign influence, especially from Sweden and Germany.