A lawspeaker or lawman (Swedish language: lagman, Old Swedish: laghmaþer or laghman, Danish language: lovsigemand, Norwegian: lagmann, Icelandic: , Faroese language: løgmaður, Finnish language: laamanni, ) is a unique legal office. It has its basis in a common Germanic oral tradition, where wise people were asked to recite the law, but it was only in Scandinavia that the function evolved into an office. At first, lawspeakers represented the people, and their duties and authority were connected to the assemblies ( things). For most of the last thousand years, however, they were part of the king's administration.
Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241) of Iceland was a famous lawspeaker. He wrote about an 11th-century lawspeaker named Torgny, but historians doubt the account.
Sweden
In
Sweden, this office was the most important one of regional governments, where each
lagsaga (usually the same as the traditional province) was the
jurisdiction of a lawspeaker who was subordinate to the lawspeaker of
Tiundaland. The lawspeaker presided over the
things, worked as a judge and formulated the laws that had been decided by the people. The lawspeaker was obliged to memorize the law and to recite it at the
thing. He was also responsible for the administration at the
thing and for the execution of the decisions, and it was his duty to safeguard the rights and liberties of the people and to speak on their behalf to the king or his representative. It was the lawspeaker who, on the behalf of the people, recognized the elected king when he passed on the
Eriksgata. However, after the establishment of the province laws, c. 1350, he would participate at the Stone of Mora with twelve companions from his jurisdiction.
According to the Västgöta Law, the lawspeaker was appointed for life by the yeomen ( bönder) of the province from among their number; it was also stipulated that his father should also have been a landowner.
The first named Swedish lawspeaker, if the text is correct, is the Lum recorded in a register of Västergötland lawmen copied by Laurentius Dyakn, a priest in Vidhem, in the 1320s; he must have lived around 1000. The first Swedish lawspeaker for whom we have substantial biographical information is Eskil (c. 1175–1227), the seventeenth in Laurentius's list.
From then on, the lawspeakers only came from the nobility, and it had turned into a pension, in which a member of the Privy Council of Sweden was selected and received a salary, but had other people taking care of the work. This privilege was abolished during the Reduction of 1680, after which the lawspeakers were obliged to take care of the work themselves, and there were checks on the appointment of members of the privy council. Still, the appointment remained restricted to noblemen until 1723.
By then, the functions of the office had become restricted to that of a judge, a function which also became less important by time. In 1849, the office was abolished, but the title remained occasionally in use as a title of honour for governors.
In 1947, the title of lagman (pl. lagmän) was reintroduced for senior judges, namely the presidents of divisions of the courts of appeal. Since reform in 1969, presidents of the district courts ( tingsrätter) are lagmän, while presidents of divisions of the courts of appeal are hovrättslagmän ("court of appeal lawspeakers"). Correspondingly, presidents of the district administrative courts ( förvaltningsrätter) also carry the title of lagman and presidents of divisions of the administrative courts of appeal are kammarrättslagmän ("administrative court of appeal lawspeakers").
|
+ First known lawmen in each province of Sweden |
| 1296-1316 |
| 1231 |
| 1286–1289 |
| 1293–1296 |
| 1231 |
| 1286–1296 |
| (joined Uppland in the 1290s) |
| ? |
| 1285–1286 |
| 1295–1304 |
| 1305 |
| 1325–1336 |
| 1271–1279 |
| 1190 |
| 1268 |
| c. 1285 |
| 1217–1227 |
| 1230 |
| 1240 |
| 1251–1253 |
| 1244 |
| 1247–1263 |
| 1180 |
| 1200 |
| 1266–1268 |
Finland
Finland being governed by Swedish law wholly until 1809, the events were the same as in Sweden. However, the
lagman offices were terminated and
lagman became an honorific title only in 1868 (at that time laws were published also in Finnish and thus also the term
laamanni official). In the 1993 reform,
laamanni and
lagman were reintroduced as the title of the chief judge of a district court or a senior judge in a court of appeal.
Norway
In
Norway, the lawspeakers remained counselors versed in the law until king Sverre I of Norway (1184–1202) made them into his officials. In the laws of Magnus VI of Norway (1263–1280), they were given the right to function as judges and to preside at the lagtings (the Norwegian superior courts). Modern historians regard the lawspeakers in ancient times (especially before around 1600), of which there were 10–12 in the entire kingdom, as part of the
nobility. In the 14th and 15th centuries they were usually recruited from the existing higher nobility, with some holding the rank of knight, the highest rank of nobility in the kingdom. In the 16th century they were still usually recruited from the existing nobility, albeit more often from the lower nobility. Lawspeakers received fiefs. For example, Marker fief was by tradition held by the lawspeaker of Oslo. They were also treated as equal to the nobility on formal occasions.
[Tor Weidling: "Perspektiver på adelen i Norge ved utgangen av middelalderen og på 1500-tallet" (p. 61). In Tore Hermundsson Vigerust (ed.), Benkestokk-seminaret, Oslo: Kane.benkestokk.teiste forlag, 1999, ]
The historical lagtings and the office of lawspeaker were abolished in 1797, but the title was reinstituted in 1887 together with the introduction of the jury system.
Iceland
In
Iceland, the office was introduced in 930, when the
Althing was established. He was elected for three years. Besides his function as the president of the
thing, his duties were restricted to counselling and to reciting the law. It was the sole government office of the medieval Icelandic Commonwealth. The lawspeaker was elected for a term of three years and was supposed to declaim the law at the Althing, a third of it each summer. In fact, Grímr Svertingsson's term was cut short, not because of incompetence or illness, but because his voice was too weak for the job. Apart from his function as a lawsayer and chairman of the court, the
lǫgsǫgumaðr had no formal power, but he would often be appointed as an arbitrator in the frequently arising disputes. The office lingered on for a few years in the transitional period after 1262, after which it was replaced with a
lǫgmaðr. The traditional date for the founding of the Althing is 930 with Úlfljótr appearing as a founding figure and the original author of the laws. After the union with
Norway in 1264, two royal lawspeakers were appointed who had an important influence on the legal processes at the
thing. The office was abolished together with the Althing in 1800.
List of Icelandic lawspeakers
Scholars are suspicious of the fact that Úlfljótur's first two successors have been assigned a period in office of exactly 20 summers each, but from
Þorkell máni on, the chronology is probably correct; names are given in their modern Icelandic form.
|
|
| c. 930 |
| 930–949 |
| 950–969 |
| 970–984 |
| 985–1001 |
| 1002–1003 |
| 1004–1030 |
| 1031–1033 |
| 1034–1053 |
| 1054–1062 |
| 1063–1065 |
| 1066–1071 |
| 1072–1074 |
| 1075 |
| 1076–1083 |
| 1084–1107 |
| 1108–1116 |
| 1117–1122 |
| 1123–1134 |
| 1135–1138 |
| 1139–1145 |
| 1146–1155 |
| 1156–1170 |
| 1171–1180 |
| 1181–1202 |
| 1203–1209 |
| 1210–1214 |
| 1215–1218 |
| 1219–1221 |
| 1222–1231 |
| 1232–1235 |
| 1236–1247 |
| 1248–1250 |
| 1251 |
| 1252 |
| 1253–1258 |
| 1259–1262 |
| 1263–1265 |
| 1266 |
| 1267 |
| 1268 |
| 1269–1270 |
| 1271 |
See also
-
Asega (lawspeaker of medieval western Friesland)
-
Brehon
-
Medieval Scandinavian law
Notes
External links
