https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_Arnold_case
The Miller Arnold case (German: Müller-Arnold-Fall) is a landmark 18th-century German court case and cause célèbre during the reign of Frederick II that raised issues relating to the concept of judicial independence. It is an example of the Kabinettsjustiz [de] (transl. cabinet justice) of Frederick II, as he personally intervened in a case which had already been adjudicated by the Prussian courts.[1]
The case is named after the miller Christian Arnold who, together with his wife Rosine, pursued justice for an alleged upstream diversion of the water supply to his mill by a nobleman that rendered the mill inoperable. They lost all court cases that considered the matter, but when the couple turned to Frederick II, the king inter alia quashed the decisions of the Prussian courts, imprisoned some of the deciding judges, dismissed Maximilian von Fürst und Kupferberg [de], a leading figure in the administration of justice, and restored the mill and its water supply to the Arnolds.
Outside of Prussia the interventions by the king were received positively. They were considered to be as an example of a just ruler that sided with the commoners against nobility. Catherine the Great is said to have called the king "Solomon of the North"[22][25] and sent to her senate a copy of the king's protocol dated 11 December 1779.[26] Furthermore, it is claimed, that the Sultan of Morocco (probably Hassan I of Morocco) had all Prussian prisoners from his jails released without the usual ransom payment after he learned of the affair.[22] The Italian engraver Vincenzio Vangelisti positively immortalised the case and the king's interventions with his copperplate etching "Balance de Frederic".[26]
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