Eskil Magnusson

Eskil Magnusson (circa 1175 to 1227) served as lawspeaker, or lagman, of Vastergotland in what is now Sweden, and is described as the first attested legal official in the region about whom extensive information survives. He collected and edited the province laws into the Vastgotalagen, the oldest known Swedish text written in the Latin script, and the historical record credits him with administering justice with great consideration and possessing both good judgment and the learning of a cleric. A member of the Bjalbo dynasty, he was the elder half-brother of Birger Jarl, who went on to become Sweden most powerful figure in the mid-thirteenth century.