Disting

The Disting (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈdiːsˌtɪŋː]) is an annual market which is held in Uppsala, Sweden, since pre-historic times. The name (Old Swedish: Disæþing or Disaþing) originally referred to the great assembly called the Thing of all Swedes, and it is derived from the fact that both the market and the thing were held in conjunction with the Dísablót, the great blóts (sacrifices) for female powers called dísir (they include the Norns and the Valkyries) at the Temple at Uppsala. They were all originally held at the end of February or in early March.

The Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson, who was well-informed of Swedish matters and visited the country in 1219, explained in the Heimskringla (1225):

In 1611, the first play in the Swedish language named Disa by Johannes Messenius was enacted at the Disting showing a late medieval legend explaining the origins of the Disting, as the pagan origins had been forgotten. Instead of being held in honour of female powers, it was held in honour of a heroic girl who had prevailed on the king and the assembly to stop a great massacre of the weak and elderly to hinder overpopulation.

Distinguishing

In law, to distinguish a case means a court decides the holding or legal reasoning of a precedent case will not apply due to materially different facts between the two cases. There are two formal constraints on the later court: the factors in the ratio of the earlier case must be retained in formulating the ratio of the later case, and the ruling in the later case must still support the result reached in the precedent case.

The ruling made by the judge must be based not only on the evidence they are faced with, but the precedents in which they must follow. This means that a precedent will be dealt to a case with similar facts, in which a decision can then be distinguished based upon this.

Examples

The English cases Balfour v. Balfour (1919) and Merritt v Merritt (1970) both involve a wife making a claim against her husband for breach of contract.

See also

References