The Lawman Office in Sweden and Finland. State-building and Social Transformation 1350-1560

The purpose of this project is to study the lawman office, its functions and changing roles in the local communities and in the state-building process 1350–1560.

The lawmen held the highest judicial and political authority within Sweden´s legal districts and provinces (including Finland). Historians have traditionally pointed out two crucial phases in the Swedish state-building process.

The first manifested through an intensive legislative period beginning in the 13th century and ending with the introduction of common law in the mid-14th century.

The second, beginning with the reign of Gustav Vasa in the 16th century, gradually transformed Sweden from a decentralized aristocratic republic, towards a centralised national kingdom.It has been argued that the local and regional courts were crucial in the state-building process, as arenas for interaction and negotiations between state representatives and local communities.

This project studies the lawman office´s functions and roles in these processes, and the organization of the judicial and political institutions of the district courts.

This study implements a spatial perspective, studying the lawman office and local courts as geographical nodes connecting and organizing society. Thereby this project contributes to our knowledge about the state-building process at a key moment in Swedish history. It deepens our knowledge about the societal organisation in Sweden and in a broader Scandinavian and European context.