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Concept
Lawspeaker
Summary
A lawspeaker or lawman (Swedish: lagman, Old Swedish: laghmaþer or laghman, Danish: lovsigemand, Norwegian: lagmann, Icelandic: lög(sögu)maður ˈlœɣ(ˌsœːɣʏ)ˌmaːðʏr̥, Faroese: løgmaður, Finnish: laamanni, inatsitinuk) is a unique Scandinavian 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.
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 in 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 Westrogothic 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 office was not hereditary, but he was usually selected from the more powerful families.
Official source
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