Scandinavian Law in the Early Modern Period

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the connection of Scandinavian to continental law increased. The reception of learned ius commune had advanced to Germany during the fifteenth century, and it was only logical that the learned legal scholarship now reached Scandinavia. Influences spread to Scandinavia through two principal channels. The centralized royal power in Denmark and Sweden needed learned legal experts to deal with their European counterparts. The Scandinavian royal chanceries therefore hired German, or sometimes Dutch, legal professionals to represent them in diplomatic negotiations and to counsel them in legal questions. The number of Swedes and Danes studying in foreign universities rose, and domestic universities were founded as well. The establishment of the high courts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries caused, if not an influx of ius commune into the legal practice, at least an increasing influence of common European legal scholarship.