Court Cases in the Regional State Archives

It Happened in Court

On July 25 of 1814, the Conciliation Board of Hjelmeland in the district of Rogaland heard a dispute between the respective freeholders of the Mjølhus and Døvik farms. The tenant farmers of Mjølhus were claiming that the Døvik freeholders let their livestock graze on the portion of the outfield belonging to Mjølhus, and therefore requested the assistance of the Conciliation Board to establish the location of the border between the farms. There existed an old ruling from 1595 that was still in force; now they had to go out in the field to find the marking crosses that were put up back then, so two men were appointed to each farm to conduct an "on-site inspection." When the men returned, they assured the farmers that all markings mentioned in the old judgment still existed, and that no other markings were to be found. The tenant farmers then agreed that the border from 1595 was the correct one, and that if any of the parties failed to maintain the fence in "legal condition", he must pay a fine to the poor relief fund of Hjelmeland.

Such disputes, now referred to as civil suits, constitute one of two main categories of court cases found in the archives. That applies just as much to the 17th century as to the 19th century. The other main category is criminal cases.

In 1633, Omund Monsen and Helge Rasmussen from Jæren were sentenced to death “on the spiked wheel”, the most mutilating execution method possible. The court case against them provides much information about the two men: their geographical origins, some data on their family situation, how their criminal careers got started, previously committed crimes, and the people with whom they were associated. We also discover that one of them already had a death sentence, but had managed to escape. The Record of Court Proceedings also indicate in what parts of the country they had been busy stealing and pillaging.

Information in Court Archives

The oldest preserved Records of Court Proceedings in the regional state archives go back to the 1570s, but the majority of the conserved material dates from the second half of the 17th century and onwards. The content of the court cases varies greatly. While the material bears testimony to many unique and peculiar societal events, the court cases primarily offer an insight into people's daily life and everyday problems. The cases that were heard reveal conditions that were typical of their time or distinctive to certain local communities. The court cases encompass defamation suits, property disputes, paternity and divorce cases, financial matters, theft, murder and sorcery, to mention just a few. The questioning of witnesses and statements by parties to the suit provide unique insights into living conditions and the general mood of the time. The court archives are rich in information on family history and detailed reports on individuals.

Village and Town Courts

From 1590 to 1797, the Village Court [bygdetinget] was the lowest legal body in rural areas. All cases, both criminal and civil suits, were to be heard before and adjudged by the village court before a possible appeal to the presiding judge of the appellate court. The local magistrate served as the secretary, and later as the judge of the village court. In the towns, the mayor and his counselor ruled on cases brought before the Town Hall Court [rådstueretten]. In 1662, the Town Court [bytinget] became the new court of first instance for minor cases, with the local magistrate serving as the judge. The Town Hall Court became the ordinary court of second instance. From the Village Court and the Town Hall Court, cases could be appealed to a superior central court, the Lagting.
Death sentences had to be confirmed by the Lagting.

In 1797 (1795 for the towns), a Conciliation Board (forliksråd) was established in every parish. The Conciliation Board arrangement was meant to relieve the ordinary courts of some of their workload by performing mediation in the majority of private disputes. In 1797, the entire legal system was extensively revised. The Town Hall Court and the Lagtings disappeared. The Town and Village Courts continued as before. The earlier Lagtings were replaced by the Stiftsoverrett, superior courts established in each diocese capital with jurisdiction over the geographical area of the relevant diocese.

The current legal system is based on the Norwegian Jury Act of 1887 for criminal cases (implemented in 1890) and the Norwegian Civil Litigation Act of 1915 for civil cases (implemented in 1927). As of 1890, criminal cases in town and village courts were heard before the Court of Examination and Summary Jurisdiction [forhørsretten] and a court sitting with professional judge(s) and lay assessors [meddomsretten].

The Jury Act introduced a Court of Appeal [lagmannsrett] as a court of second instance for the town and village courts and as a court of first instance for serious criminal cases. The Court of Appeal replaced the Stiftsoverett as of 1890 for criminal cases and as of 1936 for civil cases. As of 1927, the Conciliation Boards were accorded court status for most ordinary civil suits. City and Municipal Courts replaced Town and Village Courts that same year.

Specialized Courts

For a long time, different court procedures applied to different societal groups. Prior to 1821, the owners of noble manors wielded legal power over individuals living and working on the manor. In the mining industry, the management held a certain legal power over their employees until 1812. Prosteretten, a clerical court made up of a senior rector and two of his ministers, ruled in cases against civil servants in the church and educational system, as well as cases involving ministers, sacristans and congregations. The appellate authority was a court consisting of the Bishop and the County Governor. There was also a separate clerical court (Chapter Court) for lay people for immorality cases, violations of church rules, etc. The latter two courts eventually converged into the Consistorial Court. The records of these courts are contained in the archives left by bishops and senior rectors. The Army also had its own court system. The majority of the older specialized courts ceased their function before the mid-1800s.

In some cases, both civil and criminal cases were processed and adjudged outside the ordinary courts by so-called judging commissions.

After around 1860, cases relating to the division of property are found in the archives of the land courts.

The Major Archival Series

The Conciliation Boards’ negotiations are recorded in the Minutes of Conciliation Proceedings [forliksprotokollene], which have generally been preserved since their beginning in 1797. Records of Court Proceedings, [tingbøker, for a certain period also known as justisprotokoller] are the most important and extensive series of records from the town and village courts. As of 1890, these records contain only civil cases. As the case complexes and case load increased in the lower courts, additional records series were created for special types of cases. Records of Supplementary Court Proceedings [ekstrarettprotokoller], were used to keep minutes of cases that were heard outside the ordinary court sittings. Records of Maritime Court Proceedings [sjørettsprotokoller] contain maritime accident statements and marine loss assessment reports. Each Record of Court Proceedings comes with appendices containing the case documents. In 1897, the keeping of a separate Record of Court Proceedings for each individual criminal case was mandated. In 1927, the same was made applicable to civil cases. The Record of Court Proceedings is kept together with the other case documents.

If a case was appealed to a Court of Appeal, the case documents were sometimes sent along, and ended up being kept in the archives of the superior court. In such courts, the Records of Court Proceedings and the Records of Judgments [dombøker] constitute the most important series. In 1890, the Court of Appeal was ordered to keep a separate Record of Court Proceedings for each case. In more recent times, it is the case file, containing the Record of Court Proceedings and case documents, that provides the best overview of a case brought before either a Municipal Court or a Court of Appeals.

The court archives are typically deposited with the regional state archives when they are 25-30 years old. In general, the archival material is freely accessible to the public after 60 years. However, due to privacy considerations, the time limit is often set to 80 years, following an evaluation of the individual case.

How to Find Your Way through the Records

The regular archive catalogs in the regional state archives provide an overview of the preserved material sorted according to government body and the time period covered by each record book, parcel or box.

The oldest Records of Court Proceedings, for the period prior to about 1650, exist in printed versions. A few Records of Court Proceedings from the last half of the 1600s have also been published in book format, and several have been posted on the internet. The majority of this material is available on the following websites:

• The Digital Archives

• The Documentation Project

The unprinted material from older times is often difficult to study. In the 1600s and 1700s, the court offices did not prepare case registers accompanying the Records of Court Proceedings. The same applies to the Minutes of Conciliation Proceedings up to our times. This makes it very difficult to locate the relevant cases. A further complication is the fact that the handwriting often shows that the court clerk was working under time pressure. Users often have to leaf through the records from cover to cover to find the information they are seeking. However, users ought to be aware that the regional state archives have created so-called “site registers” [åstedsregistre] for property cases based on land and title numbers to facilitate access to such cases. In some regional state archives, users can also find other types of registers created in recent times, often as accompaniments to the oldest Records of Court Proceedings.

As of the early 1800s, it became customary to draw up chronological case registers to go along with the Records of Court Proceedings. Throughout the second half of the 1800s, an alphabetical list of parties was often kept on the front or back pages of the Records of Court Proceedings. It therefore tends to be easier to maneuver your way through Records of Court Proceedings dating from the past 150 years.

Court Information in Other Archives

Besides the court archives, you may also find information about court cases and judgments in the archives left by police, rural sheriffs and prison authorities.

The police and sheriff archives contain information on police work related to all types of court cases, as well as incidents that were concluded with fines, i.e. cases that were not adjudged by the ordinary courts. The prison archives contain information on the serving of sentences. For criminal cases, the case documents are often kept in the police archives. But procedures and practice have changed quite a bit over time, and in many cases, the prison archives also contain long rows of case documents.

The archives of the Public Prosecutor or District Attorney (from 1887) give testimony to the efforts made by the prosecuting authorities. In older times, i.e. in the 1600s and 1700s, the County Governor and Bailiff/Town Bailiff were in charge of much of the legal system, including both the public prosecution and the execution of punishments.

Cases often continued on through the legal system. In older times, this was not always clearly indicated in the Records of Proceedings from lower courts. When cases were appealed to a superior court with jurisdiction over the entire country, such as the Supreme Court [Overhoffrett or Høyesterett], the relevant archives are found in the National Archives.

On petition by the convict, the King or an administrative body authorized by the monarch could reduce or alter the sentence. Information on this is found in the archives left by the institution processing the petition and local public bodies that were informed about the decision.

All the data from the criminal cases that were investigated during the war tribunals following WWII are preserved in the National Archives in special treason trial files.

Sources:

Alf Kiil: Arkivkunnskap. Statsarkiva. [Archival Science: The Regional State Archives]. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1969.
Hans Eyvind Næss: “Sorenskriverens tingbøker fra 1600-1700-tallet som historisk kildemateriale” [The Magistrate’s Records of Court Proceedings from the 1600s and 1700s as historical source material], Heimen, Volume XVIII (1981), p. 781-795.
Hans Eyvind Næss: "Lagtingsprotokoller – gullgruber med feller” [Records of Lagting Proceedings: treasure chests with traps], Heimen, Vol. XXI (1984), p. 59-67.
Tingboka som kilde. En seminarrapport. [The Record of Court Proceedings as a source: A Seminar Report]. Oslo: The Norwegian institute of Local history (NLI), 1990.

Printed Records of Court Proceedings:

Oslo and Akershus Districts
Tingbok Aker [Record of Court Proceedings in Aker], 1685.
Publisher: Tingbokprosjektet [The Record of Court Proceedings Project], edited by Bodil Chr. Erichsen and Gunnar W. Knutsen (1996).

Oppland and Hedmark Districts
Tingbok Solør og Østerdalen [Record of Court Proceedings in Solør and Østerdalen], 1638-1641, 1649-1653.
Publisher: Tingbokprosjektet [The Record of Court Proceedings Project], edited by Solveig Torp (Vol. 1-3, 1994-1998).

Buskerud District
Tingbok Bragernes [Record of Court Proceedings in Bragernes], 1685.
Publisher: Tingbokprosjektet [The Record of Court Proceedings Project], edited by Bodil Chr. Erichsen (1994).
Tingbok Lier, Røyken og Hurum [Record of Court Proceedings in Lier, Røyken, and Hurum], 1685.
Publisher: Tingbokprosjektet [The Record of Court Proceedings Project], edited by Bodil Chr. Erichsen (1996).
Tingbok for Ringerike [Record of Court Proceedings in Ringerike], 1652-1653, 1658-1662, 1664.
Publisher: Ringerike Historical Society (Vol. 1-5, 1988-1997).

Aust- and Vest-Agder Districts
Kristiansand bytingsprotokoll nr. 1 [Record of Proceedings in Kristiansand Town Court, No. 1], 1670.
Publisher: Agder Historical Society (1991).
Mandal: Tingbok nr. 1 og 2 [Mandal: Record of Court Proceedings No. 1 and 2], 1677 and 1684.
Publisher: Agder Historical Society (1992).
Vestre Råbyggelag: tingbok nr. 1 [Vestre Råbyggelag: Record of Court Proceedings No. 1],1683.
Publisher: Agder Historical Society, edited by Ole Gausdal, Rune Holbek, Terje Sødal (1999).

Rogaland District
Tingbøker fra Jæren og Dalane [Record of Court Proceedings from Jæren and Dalane], (1613-1645, 1650-1659).
Publisher: The Regional State Archive in Stavanger et al., edited by Ola Aurenes (Vol. 1, 1953) and Hans Eyvind Næss (Vols. 2-6, 1979-1986).
Tingbøker fra Ryfylke [Record of Court Proceedings from Ryfylke] (1616-1642, 1652-1661).
Publisher: The Regional State Archive in Stavanger et al., edited by Ola Aurenes (Vol. 1, 1957) and Hans Eyvind Næss (Vols. 2-10, 1977-1991).

Hordaland District
Voss tingbok [Record of Court Proceedings in Voss], (1662-1664, 1683-1685).
Publisher: Tingbokprosjektet [The Record of Court Proceedings Project], edited by Anna Kløve (Vols. 1-3, 1990-1994).

Finnmark District
Tingbok for Finnmark [Record of Court Proceedings in Finnmark], 1620-1633.
Publisher: The Norwegian institute of Local history (NLI), (1987).