REICHSKAMMERGERICHT

(German: Imperial Chamber of Justice), supreme court of the Holy Roman Empire between 1495 and the dissolution of the empire in 1806. From the early Middle Ages the supreme court had been the Hofgericht, in which the emperor himself presided and a body of assessors sat in judgment. It ceased to act when the emperor was abroad and was dissolved upon his death. In the 15th century, when the emperor ceased to command respect, his court lost the confidence of his subjects and after 1450 ceased to sit. In 1415 the Kammergericht appeared side by side with the Hofgericht and in 1450 replaced it. The king or his deputy presided in the Kammergericht, which was the king's personal court; all members of the new chamber, however, were now officialsthe consiliarii of the imperial Aulic Council. Generally, those members of the council who had legal backgrounds sat in the Kammergericht. As they were usually doctors of civil (Roman) law, the court tended to act according to that law and thus contributed to the reception of Roman law into Germany toward the end of the 15th century. Even the Kammergericht, however, fell into disuse in the later years of the reign of Frederick III (d. 1493). The creation of a new and more efficient court became a matter of pressing necessity; as a result, the Reichskammergericht was created at the Imperial Diet of Worms in 1495. It was distinguished from the old Kammergericht by the fact that it was not the personal court of the emperor but the official court of the empire; it was paid by the empire and thus was not dependent on the will or money of the emperor. The emperor appointed the chief justice, who had to be a high aristocrat, and two (later four) presidents of court senates. The emperor nominated a certain number of members, while the rest of the judges, who formed the majority, were nominated by the various component states of the empire. Initially, half of the members were to be doctors of Roman law and half were to be knights; after 1555, however, it became necessary for the latter to be learned in Roman law as well. The court resided first at different places, then at Speyer, from 1527 to 1689, and later at Wetzlar. As a result, the final reception of Roman law into Germany was achieved. The composition of the court was imitated in the various states of the empire, and Roman law became the local (it being already the central) law of the land. The province of the Reichskammergericht was gradually defined by statute and use. It covered breaches of the public peace, cases of arbitrary imprisonment, pleas that concerned the treasury, violations of the emperor's decrees or laws passed by the Diet, disputes about property between immediate vassals of the empire or the subjects of different rulers, and finally suits against immediate vassals of the empirewith the exception of criminal charges and matters relating to imperial fiefs, which went to the Aulic Council. The Reichskammergericht acted as a court of appeal from territorial courts in civil and, to a small extent, in criminal cases, except in territories that enjoyed privileges of nonappeal, such as the territories of the electors.