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At prefent all caufes are firft decidecl
at the FLarads-thing, or county court,
from which the parties concerned may
appeal to the Al-thing, or common court
o f juftice, which is kept every year on
the 8th of July at Thingvalla. Here
there are two courts, the one before
which the caufe in appeal is firft
brought, and confifts entirely o f lagmen
* ; the other to which recourfe
may be had for a new hearing, and
more accurate examination the following
year ; and this is compofed o f
the governor, who prefides, and twelve
aireftors, who are the moft refpeaable
men in the country, moftly lagmen and
fijfelmeiu From this court the parties
may again appeal to the fiipreme court
o f judicature at Copenhagen, which is
final.
^ The Norwegians, on their firft arrival
in Iceland, made their own laws ;
hat thefe proving infufiicient, when
the number o f people increafed, Ul-
fiiotr undertook, in the year 987, a
At the fame time and at the fame place the fpirl-
tua c-onn called PreJla-JIefnakhdd, wherein the governor
and biihop prefide: the prieils are the aifef-
jors.
voyage
voyage to Norway, and compofed an
accurate code of laws from the regulations
eftablifhed there. He made ufe
o f the Gulothing law on this occafion,
and returned to his native country
after an abfence o f three years.;
In 1 1 18, the Gragas, a famous ancient
code o f laws, was received there ;
and in 1280, that cUled the Jonsbok^^
according to which fentence is ftill
pronounced in fome cafes 5 but at
prefent moft matters are decided
after the Danifli law, and ibme more
recent regulations,
^ Thtjonjhok was received in 1272, according to
an Icelandic Chronicle, publiibed by,^Langebeck in the
fécond volume of the Scriptores Hift. Dan.
L E T T E R
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