('Magnus Lagabøte's City Law') was promulgated for

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

in 1276 during the reign of

King Magnus VI of Norway Magnus the Lawmender (1 or 3 May 1238 – 9 May 1280), also known as Magnus Haakonsson, was King of Norway from 1263 to 1280. One of his greatest achievements was the modernisation and nationalisation of the Norwegian law-code. He was the first N ...

(known as Magnus or 'law-mender').

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...

and

Tønsberg Tønsberg (), historically Tunsberg, is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tønsberg Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located about south-southwest of the capital city of Oslo on the western coast of the Oslofjord near ...

received their own versions of the City Law about the same time, with the exact year when they were adopted unknown. The City Law was based on the State Law of Magnus Lagabøte, adopted in 1274, and the ''

Bjarkøyretten The Bjarkey laws (Old Swedish: ''biærköa rætter'', Old Icelandic: ''bjarkeyjar-rettr'', Norwegian: ''bjarkøretten'', Danish: ''bjærkeret'', ''birkeret'') were the laws and privileges of medieval Scandinavian merchant towns (birks). In Nor ...

'', Trondheim's old city law, which came into force during the 1100s.

Audun Hugleiksson Audun Hugleiksson (Hestakorn) ({{circa 1240 – 2 December 1302) was a Norwegian nobleman at the end of the 13th century. He was the king's right hand, both under King Magnus Lagabøte and King Eirik Magnusson. He was seen as an important poli ...

was instrumental in the design of the law. Magnus Lagabøte's City Law had specific rules and regulations that applied to the merchants in conjunction with the State Law. The laws that applied to the countryside were omitted. The State and City Laws were undoubtedly better known and more widespread than all other secular works in Norway in the late Middle Ages. The laws were applied verbally, with the principle of

equality before the law Equality before the law, also known as equality under the law, equality in the eyes of the law, legal equality, or legal egalitarianism, is the principle that all people must be equally protected by the law. The principle requires a systematic ru ...

and

justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

. Today, the Byloven survives in twenty-five manuscripts, mostly as a complementary addition to the

State Law State law refers to the law of a federated state, as distinguished from the law of the federation of which it is a part. It is used when the constituent components of a federation are themselves called states. Federations made up of provinces, cant ...

. According to the City Law, the city was governed by the or ('city meeting'), where all the town's householders met three times a year. In addition, there should be a council, usually of twelve men. The council was led by a taxpayer, later called '' byfogd'' ('city bailiff').

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* {{cite book, last=Bugge, first=Ivar, date=1986, url=http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-nb_digibok_2007080200066, title=Kommunal forfatning : En historisk gjennomgang av utviklingen med hovedvekt på tidsrommet fra 1837, og en beskrivelse av kommunalrett og kommunal forfatning i dagens Norge, location=Oslo, publisher=Kommunalforlaget, language=no Legal history of Norway

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