The Scandinavian Legal Family -

An IntroductionMårten Schultz (LLD)

Faculty of Law, Stockholm University;

Stockholm Centre for Commercial Law

Today’s Lecture

• Introduction to Swedish/Scandinavian law

• Characteristics of Scandinavian civil law• Why Scandinavian law is not like the

continental, civil law systems• Why Scandinavian law is not like the

common law systems• The Scandinavian approach in the era of

globalization (Europeanization)

Introduction to Todays Lecture

• Civil law (patrimonial law) – where differences are most apparent

• (Public law and criminal law, an example of a Swedish freedom of press and whistle blower protection)

• Emphasis on Swedish law.

Introduction to Scandinavian Law

General Observations

• Scandinavia and the Nordic countries• Language barriers in the Nordic

countries• The use of non-national legal sources

(from other Nordic countries) in courts, preparatory works, academia, etc.

Brief Remarks on the Constitutional Structure of the Scandinavian Legal Systems

• Constitution? Swedish examples • No constitutional court • Division of powers• The court system• The judge career

Methodological Remarks

• The use of preparatory works• Analogies• ”Legal dogmatics”

Introduction to Scandinavian Civil Law

Introduction to Scandinavian Civil Law

• Sweden (Scandinavia): No civil code• The Swedish law reform from 1734• Attempts to codify Scandinavian law• The Swedish ”law book” (lagboken) is not a code

Statutory Law and Judge Made Law

• Swedish civil law: A patchwork of legislation and general principles

• On the notion of ”general principles” in this context

• Systematics of Swedish civil law

Legislative Gaps

• General law of obligations• Services (non-consumers)• Unjust enrichment/the law of

restitution• Negotiorum gestio • (Qausi-contracts)• Implications of a void contract

The Nordic Legislative Co-operation

• The Nordic tradition • ”Common” legislation: The Act on

Contracts (avtalslagen), the sales of goods act (köplagen), consumer protection legislation

• Contemporary projects?

Statutory Law and Judgemade Law – a more detailed view

• General contract law• Property law• The law of sales• Consumer protection law• Tort law

Why Scandinavian law is not like the continental systems

Characteristics of the Continental Systems

• The civil code: BGB; CC; ABGB; BW, etc.

• What is a civil code? • The legal-cultural importance of

codification.• The systematic importance of

codification• The ”material” importance of

codification

Continental and Scandinavian Law Compared

• Again: Sweden (Scandinavia): No civil code

• Many areas of civil law lack legislation

• General legal principles without (clear) statutory support

• Difficult to find systematic coherence

Why Scandinavian law is not like the common law systems

Common Law

• Judgemade law • The idea of ”leading cases”• ”Distinguishing”

Common Law and Scandinavian (Swedish) Law

Compared• The use of analogies in Swedish law

as a basis for general legal principles• The “loyalty” to Parliament of the

Supreme Court• Preparatory works

Concluding Remarks on Scandinavian Legal Method

…looking back

• General legal principles and analogies

• The use of preparatory works• The uneasy place of constitutional

arguments

The Heritage from the Scandinavian Legal Realists

• The Scandinavian legal realist movement• Hägerström – founder of the Uppsala-

school• Olivecrona & Lundstedt (Swedish)• Alf Ross (Denmark)

***On the relationship with American legal

realism

Tenets of Scandinavian Legal Realism

• Emotivism• Non-Cognitivism• Moral anti-realism (”value nihilism”)

Consequences for legal analysis

• Vicious circles and empty legal language

• Repudiation of fundamental legal concepts: Rights, wrongfulness (”Rechtswidrigkeit“), etc.

• The notion of ”justice”