The Scandinavian Legal Family - An Introduction

1. The Scandinavian Legal Family - An Introduction Mårten Schultz (LLD) Faculty of Law, Stockholm University; Stockholm Centre for Commercial Law

2. 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)

3. 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.

4. Introduction to Scandinavian Law

5. 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.

6. 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

7. Methodological Remarks • The use of preparatory works • Analogies • ”Legal dogmatics”

8. Introduction to Scandinavian Civil Law

9. 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

10. 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

11. Legislative Gaps • General law of obligations • Services (non-consumers) • Unjust enrichment/the law of restitution • Negotiorum gestio • (Qausi-contracts) • Implications of a void contract

12. 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?

13. Statutory Law and Judgemade Law – a more detailed view • General contract law • Property law • The law of sales • Consumer protection law • Tort law

14. Why Scandinavian law is not like the continental systems

15. 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

16. 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

17. Why Scandinavian law is not like the common law systems

18. Common Law • Judgemade law • The idea of ”leading cases” • ”Distinguishing”

19. 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

20. Concluding Remarks on Scandinavian Legal Method

21. …looking back • General legal principles and analogies • The use of preparatory works • The uneasy place of constitutional arguments

22. 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

23. Tenets of Scandinavian Legal Realism • Emotivism • Non-Cognitivism • Moral anti-realism (”value nihilism”)

24. Consequences for legal analysis • Vicious circles and empty legal language • Repudiation of fundamental legal concepts: Rights, wrongfulness (”Rechtswidrigkeit“), etc. • The notion of ”justice”