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Gulating () is the name of both one of the first Norwegian legislative assemblies or ''things'' and one of the present-day law courts of western Norway.〔(Per G. Norseng ''Gulating'' (Store norske leksikon) )〕 ==History== The Gulaþing was an annual parliamentary assembly which took place in Gulen, on the west coast of Norway north of Bergen, from approximately 900 to 1300 AD and was one of the oldest and largest parliamentary assemblies in medieval Norway. The Gulatinget Millennium Site is a symbol of the history of this Norwegian representative form of parliament, with traditions reaching over a thousand years back in time. Initially farmers from Western Norway met at Gulen to discuss political matters, things like taxation, the building of roads and churches, and military service. The assembly also passed judgements in civil disputes and criminal cases. Special legislation, ''Gulatingslova'' (the Gulaþing law), was drafted to aid the discussions. A fairly complete manuscript of the legislation from around 1250 has survived, ''Codex Ranzovianus'' at the University of Copenhagen; however, the text represents all the laws adopted and amended by the farmers at the ''thing'' over several centuries.〔(Per G. Norseng ''Gulatingsloven'' (Store norske leksikon) )〕 The assembly site was established early in the 10th century and the original legislative area covered the regions of Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane. Initially the Gulaþing was an 'allthing' or common assembly, where all free farmers had the right to participate. Snorri Sturlason’s ''Heimskringla'' recounts that Håkon the Good (935–961) took an active part in the parliamentary assemblies at Gulen, and under his rule the regions of Rogaland, Agder and Sunnmøre were brought into the area covered by the ''thing'', with Valdres and Hallingdal also being incorporated later. The practice of periodic regional assemblies of leading men predates recorded history, and was firmly established at the time of the unification of Norway into a single kingdom (900–1030). These assemblies or ''lagþings'', functioned as judicial and legislative bodies, resolving disputes and establishing laws. The Gulaþing received delegates from Lyngør in the south to north of Ålesund, and its laws were observed from the eastern inland valleys of Valdres and Hallingdal to the Faroe Islands in the west.〔(Jon Gisle ''Lagting'' (Store norske leksikon) )〕 The Gulaþing served as the model for the establishment of the legislative assemblies of Iceland (the Althing) and of the Faeroe Islands (the Løgting), areas settled by people from western Norway. While the Gulating was not a democratic assembly in the modern sense of an elected body, it effectively represented the interests of a large number of people rather than a small elite. The laws were typically crafted as social contracts. §35 for instance states, "None of us shall take goods from others, or take the law into our own hands" (Robbestad, 1969). The laws nevertheless applied for every person inside the "law area" ''Gulaþingslǫg''. If a stranger stole from a Gulaþingsman, that was also in breach of the laws, but the law set no limits to how he could be punished. Gulaþing, along with Norway's three other ancient regional assemblies, the Borgarting, Eidsivating, and Frostating, were joined into a single jurisdiction during the late Viking age, and King Magnus the Lawmender had the existing body of law put into writing (1263–1280). They provided the institutional and legal framework for subsequent legislative and judicial bodies, and remain in operation today as superior regional courts.〔(Jon Gisle ''Borgarting'' (Store norske leksikon) )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gulating」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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