The Scandinavian Legal Family An Introduction Mrten Schultz

The Scandinavian Legal Family An Introduction Mårten 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”