Appellation privileges ignored the various territorial court systems with the empire and can therefore be seen as important building blocks of the judicial system of the old empire. This article examines the effects of the appeal privileges in the judicial system and thus comes within the tension between the courts and the territorial courts. First of all, clarity is provided on the relevant concepts — i.e. appellate privileges, court system and design factor. In the second section, the privileged texts reproduced in Ulrich Eisenhardt and Elsbeth Markert identify objects on which the appellate privileges have influenced. The third part of the investigation seeks to define in greater detail the role of appeal privileges as factors of governance in the judicial system of the Old Empire. The fourth and final section deals specifically with the Course Appeal Priivileg of 1559.