 | ||
The law of Sweden is a civil law system, whose essence is manifested in its dependence on statutory law. Sweden's civil law tradition, as in the rest of Europe, is founded on classical Roman law, but on the German (rather than Napoleonic) model. Nevertheless, the Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway, and Denmark) together with Finland and Iceland may be said to have a special Nordic version of Germanic-Roman jurisprudence.
Contents
Constitution
Sweden has a written constitution consisting of four fundamental laws. A distinction is made between fundamental laws and other laws; the difference being that any amendment of fundamental laws requires two identical decisions to be made by the Riksdag, separated by an election.
Statutes
The Swedish Code of Statutes (Svensk författningssamling, or SFS) is the official chronological compilation of all new Swedish laws enacted by the Riksdag and ordinances issued by the Government. Also see the Sveriges Rikes lag, or the Book of Statutes, by Norstedts Juridik and Svenska förtfattningar i översättning till främmande språk. Register över gällande SFS-författninggar contains alphabetical and chronological indexes.
History
The law was unified by legislation of King Magnus Eriksson c. 1350 into two general codes. These were replaced by a single code, the Civil Code of 1734, which was promulgated in 1734.