Borgarting Court of Appeal
Encyclopedia
Borgarting Court of Appeal is the court of appeal
Court of appeal (Norway)
In Norway, the court of appeal is the second level of courts of justice, reviewing criminal and civil cases appealed from the district courts. There are six courts of appeal, each covering a jurisdiction and based in a city. Each court is led by a senior judge president and several appellate...

 located in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. It serves the counties of Oslo, Buskerud
Buskerud
is a county in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Oppland, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Telemark, and Vestfold. The county administration is located in Drammen.-Geography:...

, Østfold
Østfold
is a county in southeastern Norway, bordering Akershus and southwestern Sweden , while Buskerud and Vestfold is on the other side of the bay. The seat of the county administration is Sarpsborg, and Fredrikstad is the largest city.Many manufacturing facilities are situated here. Moss and...

 and southern Akershus
Akershus
- Geography :The county is conventionally divided into the traditional districts Follo and Romerike, which fill the vast part of the county, as well as the small exclave west of Oslo that consists of Asker and Bærum...

. The court has 62 judges and 45 administrative staff. The court is administrated by the Norwegian National Courts Administration
Norwegian National Courts Administration
Norwegian National Courts Administration is a Norwegian government agency responsible for the management and operations of the Courts of Justice of Norway. It is purely an administrative organisation, and does not interfere with the judicial processes nor the appointment of judges or other...

.

The courthouse dates to 2005 and is an eleven story building—four stories of court rooms, six of meeting rooms and one with meeting rooms—with additional court rooms in an adjoining preserved building from the early 20th century. The building is located near St. Olavs Plass in the city center.

History

The Borgarting is first mentioned in sources in 1047 as a thing
Thing (assembly)
A thing was the governing assembly in Germanic and introduced into some Celtic societies, made up of the free people of the community and presided by lawspeakers, meeting in a place called a thingstead...

 for the counties around the Oslofjord
Oslofjord
The Oslofjord is a bay in the south-east of Norway, stretching from an imaginary line between the Torbjørnskjær and Færder lighthouses and down to Langesund in the south to Oslo in the north....

, eventually expanding as far as into Grenland
Grenland
Grenland is a traditional district in the county of Telemark, in the south of Norway. It is composed of the municipalities Skien, Porsgrunn, Bamble, Nome, and Siljan. Sometimes the municipalities Kragerø, and Drangedal are considered being part of the area...

 and Båhuslen. The thing was held at Borg
Sarpsborg
is a city and municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Sarpsborg.Sarpsborg is part of the fifth largest urban area in Norway when paired with neighbouring Fredrikstad...

. Its laws were codified by King Magnus VI
Magnus VI of Norway
Magnus VI Lagabøte or Magnus Håkonsson , was king of Norway from 1263 until 1280.-Early life:...

 in 1276, when ten judges were appointed. By the fourteenth century, Oslo, Grenland and Båhuslen had their own courts, each with their own presiding judge, and Borgarting was left with Vestfold
Vestfold
is a county in Norway, bordering Buskerud and Telemark. The county administration is in Tønsberg.Vestfold is located west of the Oslofjord, as the name indicates. It includes many smaller, but well-known towns in Norway, such as Larvik, Sandefjord, Tønsberg and Horten. The river Numedalslågen runs...

 and Østfold, with the judge seat moving to Tønsberg
Tønsberg
is a city and municipality in Vestfold county, southern Norway, located around north-east of Sandefjord. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tønsberg....

. In the fifteenth century the seat was moved across the fjord to Sarpsborg, and in 1567 to Fredrikstad
Fredrikstad
is a city and municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad....

. From 1797 Borgarting was renamed Fredrikshald after the city of the same name
Halden
is a both a town and a municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The seat of the municipality, Halden is a border town located at the Tista river delta on the Iddefjord, the southernmost border crossing between Norway and Sweden.-History:...

, and Oslo was renamed Kristiania.

In 1797 the four stiftsoverrett were created as courts of appeal. Akershus Court of Appeal was located in Oslo (at the time called Christiania) and responsible for Eastern Norway. The current structure with six courts of appeal and their names dates from 1890, with small changes to the structure of the districts in 1936. At the same time the overrett ("high court") disappeared. These three courts had been above the courts of appeal, but had used written, instead of oral, procedures.

External links

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