Abstract
What follows is less a description of judicial activism in Sweden than an attempt to explain its absence. The picture is further complicated by the presence, in Sweden, of an institutional capability for judicial activism, but, despite periodic demands from various groups for a vigorous exercise of judicial review, the capability has remained largely untapped. For a variety of reasons, judges in Sweden have been looked upon more as administrators than as legislators — rule-enforcers rather than rule-makers — and there is a deeply laid fear of judicial involvement on the wrong side of that elusive line which separates political from legal matters. The political implications of a recent New York Times headline, ‘Judges Void New York City Government,’ would, even after due allowance was made for headline-writers’ hyperbole, have sent a frisson down the collective back of the Swedish body politic.1 Even if the Swedish practice is one of inactivism, it is nevertheless useful to examine it in some detail for what the absence itself tells us about judicial activism’s failure to take root in what would in many respects appear to be fertile soil.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Glendon Schubert, Judicial Policy Making: The Political Role of the Courts, rev. edn (Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1974), p. 213.
Herbert Jacob, Justice in America: Courts, Lawyers, and the Judicial Process, 4th edn (Boston: Little, Brown, 1984), pp. 25–46. Actually both roles may involve judicial policy-making.
For the German approach to this question, see the description of the General Part of the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (B.G.B.), or Civil Code, in John Henry Merryman, The Civil Law Tradition: An Introduction to the Legal Systems of Western Europe and Latin America, 2nd edn (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1985), pp. 68–79.
See Stig Strômholm, An Introduction to Swedish Law (Stockholm: Norstedts, 1981), pp. 32–5.
For a survey of the literature on this taxonomic question, see Rudolf B. Schlesinger, Hans W. Baade, Mirjan R. Damaska, and Peter E. Herzog, Comparative Law: Cases — Texts — Materials, 5th edn (Mineola, NY: The Foundation Press, 1988), p. 327.
For an enumeration of the various reports issued by this commission, see Erik Holmberg and Nils Stjemquist, Var forfattning: Sjunde upplagan (Stockholm: Norstedts, 1988), pp. 298–9.
Hakan Stromberg, ‘NormprGvning i nyare rattspraxis,’ Forvaltnings- rdttslig Tidskrift, Vol. 51 (1988): 121–43.
Gunnar Heckscher, The Welfare State and Beyond: Success and Problems in Scandinavia (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984), pp. 27ff.
On the limited nature of Swedish liberalism, see Goran B. Nilsson, ‘Swedish Liberalism at Mid-Nineteenth Century,’ in Steven Koblik, Sweden’s Development from Poverty to Affluence (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1975), pp. 141–63.
H. M. Enzensberger, Svensk Host (Stockholm: Dagens Nyheter, 1982), pp. 29–35.
Nils Stjemquist, in Rune Lavin (ed.), Om lagradsgranskning (Jurist forlaget i Lund, 1987), pp. 32, 47, 51.
Erik Anners (ed.), ‘Konstitutionell demokrati eller majoritets diktatur,’ in Demokratin, Rattsakerheten och Beskattningen (Stockholm: Norstedts, 1988), p. 26.
For a brief treatment of the concept of legal culture, see Lawrence M. Friedman, American Law: An Introduction (New York: Norton, 1984), pp. 6–7, and Henry W. Ehrmann, Comparative Legal Cultures (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1976).
See Mauro Cappelletti and William Cohen, Comparative Constitutional Law: Cases and Materials (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1979), pp. 73ff.
See the Rattssakerhets grupp symposium which was held in Stockholm on March 12, 1987, in Erik Anners, Demokratin, rattssakerketen och beskattningen, pp. 22–6. See also Aleksander Peczenik, ‘Fòrsvara ràttsstaten’ in Svensk tidskrift, No. 6 (1988): 294–8, and Brita Sundberg-Weitman, Rättsstaten ater (Stockholm: Norstedt, 1984).
Joseph B. Board, ‘The Courts in Sweden,’ in Jerold Waltman and Kenneth Holland (eds), The Political Role of Law Courts in Modern Democracies (London: Macmillan, 1988), pp. 195–6.
On the judicial career in general, see Lotti Rydberg, Domarkarriàren (Stockholm: Juristforlaget, 1988).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1991 Kenneth M. Holland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Board, J.B. (1991). Judicial Activism in Sweden. In: Holland, K.M. (eds) Judicial Activism in Comparative Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11774-1_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11774-1_10
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-11776-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-11774-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)