Justice, Human rights, Laws and program

Law and Justice:

The Swedish system of government as it has evolved until the present day, and as laid down in the new Instrument of
Government, may be described as a representative democracy. This means that in elections held at regular intervals
with universal suffrage and with equality of voting rights the citizens elect a decision-making assembly, the Riksdag (the
Swedish Parliament). Another cornerstone of the Swedish system of government is parliamentarism.

As far as civil law and criminal law are concerned, the National Law Code of 1734 is still in force, at least officially.
However, little of the Code's original contents remain. The majority of the balkar or books into which the National Law
Code of 1734 is divided have gradually been replaced during the present century. Thus there have come into existence
completely new books for marriage, wills and successions, real estate, criminal offenses, judicial procedure, and
enforcement of judgments. In modern times, moreover, a mass of special legislation has grown outside the Code in such
fields as company law, copyright, protection of industrial property and labor relations. In the case of public law, too,
important legislation has been passed in recent times, not least in the fields of local and national physical planning,
environmental protection and nature conservation.

Swedish legislation is based on a strong domestic tradition of Germanic law, but it has also been influenced by foreign
law. Roman law has had less influence on developments than in most European countries. In a number of areas,
influences from Roman law can be traced, while other fields exhibit features obviously drawn from German, French and,
in later times, Anglo- American law. An important difference in relation to the majority of continental legal systems is
that Sweden has abstained from large-scale codifications along the lines of the Code Civil in France or the Bürgerliches
Gesetzbuch in Germany. In comparison with Anglo-American law, a major difference is that Swedish law is based to a
considerably greater extent on written law, while case law plays a smaller, though important role. Thus the Swedish
legal system, both by virtue of its systematic structure and its contents, may be said to occupy a halfway house between
the Continental European and Anglo-American systems.

http://www.lysator.liu.se/nordic/mirror2/SI/security/law.html

Human Rights: