The Borgarting () was one of the four regional legislative assemblies or '' lawthings'' (') of medieval

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Historically, it was the site of the court and assembly for the south-eastern coastal region of Norway, covering from Göta älv (now in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

) to the today's Risør in Agder. The ''thing'' is named after its seat, the town of Borg (today Sarpsborg). It was established before 1164, when it absorbed the traditional districts of Grenland and Telemark. The lagting covered mostly the same areas as the current appellate court, with the addition of areas in today's Telemark, Agder, and Sweden. When Norway was united as a kingdom, the four independent ' – Frostating, Gulating, Eidsivating, and Borgarting – were the most supreme bodies of law, acting as both legislative assemblies and courts. In 1274, with the consent of all ', King Magnus the Lawmender (1238–1280) promulgated a new national law (), a unified code of laws for the Kingdom of Norway, which was exceptional of its time. With this, the Borgarting law was replaced by the new law, significantly reducing the legislative power of the assembly, and centralising power in the realm.

References

Other sources

*Andersen, Per Sveaas (1977) ''Samlingen av Norge og kristningen av landet : 800–1130'' (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget) *Larson, Laurence Marcellus (2011) ''The Earliest Norwegian Laws'' (The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd)

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