There were no public prosecutors, and no material difference between criminal and civil cases existed.

In early medieval Sweden, each Land (province) was judicially autonomous with its own legal system, laws and justice (leges terrae).

The law originally only existed in a spoken form, recited at the Thing by the Lawspeaker.

[2] The Lawspeaker of Tiundaland, Birger Persson (the father of Saint Bridget) complained to King Birger Magnusson, that the law for the three Folklands were scattered in several different law texts, some of them obscure and sometimes very difficult to comply with.

[3] According to the preamble of the Law, in addition to Birger, the commission came to consist of from Tiundaland, the Dean of Uppsala Master Andreas And [sv] (Birger's cousin), the Knights Herr Röd Keldorsson and Herr Bengt Bosson, Ulf Lagmansson, Hagbard of Söderby, Anders of Forkarby and Torsten of Sandbro; from Attundaland the Knight Herr Filip Röde of Rundby, Håkan Lawspeaker, Eskil the Cross-eyed, Sigurd Judge and Jon Gåsabog; from Fjärdhundraland Ulv of Önsta, Götrik and Ulvheden, Judges.

Eighteen amendments were later added to the law, including stipulations about burial fees, outlawry, deeding of land, and homicide by unknown perpetrators.

[3] A Thing could be held as often as every week in each hundred, or in each Skiplagh (ship's district)[6] in Roden.

[7] There were no public prosecutors, and no material difference between criminal and civil cases existed.

In cases of acts that could be atoned for by mulcts, the defendant could also initiate action by offering such at the Thing.

But if the plaintiff could not produce enough sworn witnesses, the defendant had the right to establish his nonliability by taking an oath and having, normally, eighteen men swear that they believed him.

The use of jury trials is not guided by any clear legal principles, but through individual provisions in various parts of the law.