Legal history of Sweden
The starting point of the legal history of Sweden , like that of all Nordic legal systems, is Old Germanic law . From the 12th century these rights began to be recorded in the local land ( landskapslagar ) and city law . In the 14th century it was finally possible to enforce a uniform land law and a uniform city law for all of Sweden. Especially after the end of the Thirty Years' War, Sweden came into contact with the received Roman law through the influence of the Protestant German universities . When Svea hofrätt was founded in 1614 and Göta hofrätt was founded in 1634 , it was a matter of course that these were appointed by professional judges trained in Roman law; Especially in contract law, where the previous law was very sketchy, Roman law penetrated Sweden - but without any real reception in Sweden .
The urge to standardize the law finally led to the introduction of the Sveriges rikes lag in 1734 : a code of law in nine books (balkar) with 1,300 paragraphs, which contained all of Sweden's general law. The comparatively small influence of Roman law is shown here above all in the avoidance of general principles and learned language. The code of law of 1734 was based more casuistically on typical cases that were described in simple language, and is generally to be seen as a rather conservative return to Germanic law. The entire constitutional law and the law of the guilds and guilds were regulated separately; a separate law was passed for the law of the sea as early as 1667. In the 18th century, criminal law was dominated by liberalization: Gustav III. campaigned for the abolition of torture and the death penalty , but was only able to partially prevail against conservative opposition.
Particularly in the 19th century, under the influence of the French codifications, there was no shortage of attempts at reform: in 1811 a commission was set up with the task of creating a new code. In 1826 this presented its results in a new civil code that was very similar to the French Civil Code . Liberal ideas such as equal rights for women and the same right of inheritance for siblings found their way into family and inheritance law. Resistance from the conservative side therefore prevented the draft as a whole from ever being implemented. The gradual reform in individual areas remained.
From the middle of the 19th century, the influence of French law was pushed back in favor of the German historical school . From the last third of the 19th century there was increased cooperation between the Scandinavian countries, which in many areas led to legal unification throughout the Scandinavian region. The law is formally in force from 1734 to the present, either in a reformed or obsolete form.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Konrad Zweigert and Hein Kötz : Introduction to Comparative Law . 3. Edition. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1996, § 19 Development and today's shape of Scandinavian law, p. 270-280 .
- ↑ a b c d Hugo Tiberg and Bertil Bengtsson (eds.): Swedish Law. A survey . Jurisförlaget, Stockholm 1994, ISBN 91-7598-669-8 , pp. 37-40 .