Law of Sweden
The law of Sweden is a civil law system, whose essence is manifested in its dependence on statutory law.[2] Sweden's civil law tradition, as in the rest of Europe, is founded upon Roman law as codified in the Corpus Juris Civilis, but as developed within German law, rather than upon the Napoleonic Code. But, over time Sweden along with the other Scandinavian countries have deviated significantly from their classical Roman and German models. Instead, the Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway, and Denmark) together with Finland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Åland (self-governing) and Iceland may be said to have a special "Nordic" version of jurisprudence that is neither a truly civil law system nor a part of the British-derived common law legal system.[3]
Before reception of Roman-Germanic law, the Nordic countries had a deep common law tradition of their own, including
Constitution
Sweden has a written constitution consisting of four fundamental laws. A distinction is made between fundamental laws and other laws; the difference being that any amendment of fundamental laws requires two identical decisions to be made by the Riksdag (Sweden's national legislature), separated by an election.[6]
Statutes
This article possibly contains original research. (June 2022) |
The Swedish Code of Statutes (SFS) is the official chronological compilation of all new national laws enacted by the Riksdag and ordinances issued by the Government. Sveriges rikes lag is an annually privately-published Swedish law book, containing a selection of laws and other statutes in the SFS that are deemed to be of general interest.
The Swedish statutes includes the criminal law, criminal procedure, government regulations, legal information, civil law, agriculture, and many other major topic areas and subject matter that are important to the development and society of Sweden. The code is derived into positive law, with a mix of statutory law and
Significant efforts have been made in the post-World War II era by Scandinavian Justice Ministers to harmonize the private law of the Nordic countries with each other.[8][9]
Case law
Unlike other Continental civil law systems, in which case law is generally not binding authority even if it can inform a judge's decision, and much like the common law legal systems of the British Commonwealth and former British dependencies (of which Sweden is not a part), Sweden relies upon authoritative judge made case law as an important supplement to its statutes.[10]
History
The law was unified by legislation of King Magnus Eriksson c. 1350 into two general codes. These were replaced by a single code, the Civil Code of 1734, which was promulgated in 1734.[11] Only two of the nine codes that made up the Civil Code of 1734, however, are still in force. Parts of the Commercial Code and the Building Code are still in effect. Marriage is regulated in the Marriage Code of 1987; the Parental Code is from 1949; the Inheritance Code is from 1958; etc.[7]
See also
References
- Jarbrant, Gunnel. In Winterton and Moys (eds). Information Sources in Law. Second Edition. Bowker-Saur. 1997. Chapter Twenty-Seven: Sweden. Pages 463–75.
- ^ Alphabetical Index of the 192 United Nations Member States and Corresponding Legal Systems, Website of the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa
- ^ "Oxford Libguides". Oxford Libguides. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
- ^ Andreas Føllesdal (20 April 2002). "Rawls in the Nordic Countries – ARENA Centre for European Studies".
- ^ "Förbättring av företagsintecknad egendom under konkurs | SvJT". svjt.se. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
- ISBN 978-94-017-4349-5.
- ^ "Grundlagarna: Riksdagsordningen – nästan en grundlag" (in Swedish). Riksdag. Retrieved 2019-07-14.
- ^ a b "Legislation Sweden (Lexadin)". www.lexadin.nl. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
- ^ ISSN 0002-919X.
- ^ "European Commission - European Judicial Network - Applicable law - Sweden". web.archive.org. 2019-10-30. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
- ^ Information Sources in Law. 1997.
External links
- Guide to Law Online: Sweden from the Library of Congress
- SFS from the Riksdag
- SFS from the Regeringskansliet