The Courts in Sweden

Abstract

There is a long and deep tradition of respect for law which runs through Swedish history. Whether the context is a court of law, the bureaucracy, or the canons of social etiquette, there is in Sweden a pronounced attachment to the notion that life should be conducted, as far as possible, in accordance with fixed and binding rules. Merged with the typically Swedish conception of the state as a highly centralised and positive institution, this respect for law can exert a powerful educative or tutelary force on the lives of citizens, making possible a thoroughness and comprehensiveness of social reform unmatched elsewhere. At its worst, however, the law in Sweden can add to an already pervasive paternalism which, in the words of one eminent Swedish professor of law, ‘pursues the citizen far beyond the letter of the text, intruding into bedrooms, hearts, and ledgers’.¹