The Hovrätt (Finnish: Hovioikeus) ("Royal Court") was the highest judicial body in Sweden until Gustav III of Sweden founded the Supreme Court of Sweden in 1789. The first hovrätt, Svea hovrätt, was founded in 1614. In Finland, then a part of Sweden, the Åbo hovrätt (Finnish Turun hovioikeus) was founded in 1623 by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden due to the distance to Svea hovrätt in Stockholm.
The hovrätter nowadays function as courts of appeal, the second highest judicial body in Sweden and Finland.
During the imperial era, Courts of Appeal (hovrätter in Swedish) were introduced in the kingdom in order to relieve the original Svea Court of Appeal (Svea Hovrätt) in Stockholm, established in 1614. Göta Court of Appeal was the second such court in Sweden proper, established in Jönköping in 1634. It was proceeded by Åbo Court of Appeal (1623) in Finland and Dorpat Court of Appeal (1630) in Livonia (in present day Estonia), during this era part of the dominions of Sweden. Today, there are six court regions in Sweden: the Scania and Blekinge Court of Appeal, Malmö, the Court of Appeal for Western Sweden in Gothenburg, the Göta Court of Appeal in Jönköping, The Svea Court of Appeal in Stockholm, the Court of Appeal for Southern Norrland in Sundsvall, and the Court of Appeal for Northern Norrland in Umeå.
There are today six courts of appeal within the judicial system of Sweden and six in the judicial system of Finland (that was formed during Finland being part of Sweden). The ones in Sweden are:
and the ones in Finland (names in Finnish and Swedish):