The Borgarting was one of the major popular assemblies or

thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focus ...

s (''lagting'') of medieval

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. Historically, it was the site of the court and assembly for the southern coastal region of Norway from the south-eastern border with Sweden, westwards to the today's

Risør is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located on the Skagerrak coast in the traditional region of Sørlandet. The administrative centre of Risør municipality is the town of Risør. There are many villages in Risør such as Akland, ...

Aust-Agder Aust-Agder (, en, "East Agder") was a county (''fylke'') in Norway until 1 January 2020, when it was merged with Vest-Agder to form Agder county. In 2002, there were 102,945 inhabitants, which was 2.2% of Norway's population. Its area was . The ...

. Borgarting was named after its seat, the town of Borg (today

Sarpsborg Sarpsborg ( or ), historically Borg, is a city and municipality in Viken 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 neigh ...

). It was established before 1164 when it absorbed the districts

Grenland Grenland is a traditional district in the county of Vestfold og Telemark, in the south-east of Norway. Located in the southeastern part of the county, Grenland is composed of the municipalities Skien, Porsgrunn, Bamble, and Siljan. Sometimes ...

and

Telemark Telemark is a traditional region, a former county, and a current electoral district in southern Norway. In 2020, Telemark merged with the former county of Vestfold to form the county of Vestfold og Telemark. Telemark borders the traditional ...

. When Norway was united as a kingdom, the first lagtings were constituted as superior regional assemblies. The ancient regional assemblies – Frostating,

Gulating Gulating ( non, Gulaþing) was one of the first Norwegian legislative assemblies, or ''things,'' and also the name of a present-day law court of western Norway. The practice of periodic regional assemblies predates recorded history, and was f ...

, Eidsivating and Borgarting – were eventually joined into a single

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. Ju ...

. King Magnus Lagabøte had the existing body of law put into writing (1263–1280). In 1274, Magnus promulgated the new national law ('' Magnus Lagabøtes landslov''), a unified code of laws to apply for the Kingdom of Norway. This compilation of the codified

laws (''Gulatingsloven'') applied throughout the realm extending to overseas possessions including the

Faroe islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic archipelago, island group and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotlan ...

and

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

. ''Gulatingsloven'' (Store norske leksikon)
/ref>

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)

See also

References

Other sources

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