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Customary law in Sweden and the Lapp Minority

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2009

Jacob Sundberg
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Extract

At the time when the Norse people surfaced from the dark depths of history there was only one source of law: Custom. Save for a few reflections from Canon Law even the Provincial Laws such as the Vestrogoth Code and the Ostrogoth Code only represented the custom of the land, reduced to memorable form and later to writing.

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Articles
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Netherlands International Law Review , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , December 1981 , pp. 263 - 283
Copyright
Copyright © T.M.C. Asser Press 1981

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References

1. Bryce, James, Studies in History and Jurisprudence, vol. I (Oxford 1901) p. 282Google Scholar.

2. Bryce, , op. cit., vol. I, p. 276Google Scholar.

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4. Bryce, , op. cit., vol. I, pp. 282–3Google Scholar.

5. See Lagerroth, , Frihetstidens författning (Stockholm 1915) p. 6Google Scholar; idem, “Rättskontinuitetens problem i Sverige 1809 sett i belysning av den rena rättsläran”, in Festskrift tillägnad Nils Herlitz (Stockholm 1955) p. 211; Herlitz, , Om lagstiftning (Stockholm 1926) p. 77Google Scholar.

6. See Tegengren, , “Samernas i Kemi lappmaik rätt till bäverfänge”, in Bergsland, , ed., Samenes og sameområdenes rettslige stilling historisk belyst (Oslo 1977) p. 34 et seq.Google Scholar; on the economic importance, cf. Hobbs, , “Indian Hunting and Fishing Rights”, 32 George Wash. L. Rev. 504 et seq. (1964)Google Scholar, cf. 37 George Wash. L. Rev. 1251 (1969)Google Scholar.

7. Quoted from Hafström, , Svensk Juristtidning 1936, p. 448Google Scholar (present author's translation).

8. Quoted from Hafström, , Svensk Juristtidning 1958, p. 281Google Scholar (present author's translation).

9. Wedberg, Birger, Svensk Juristtidning 1942, p. 632Google Scholar.

10. Sjögren, , ed., Förarbetena till Sveriges Rikes Lag 1686–1736 (Uppsala 1900) vol. 5, p. 417Google Scholar.

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12. Wrede, , “Försök till tolkning af 1 kap. R.B.”, Juridiska Föreningens i Finland Tidskrift 1894, pp. 317–73Google Scholar.

13. Flintberg, , Lagfarenhets-Bibliothek, Part 4 (Stockholm 1801) p. 44Google Scholar with further references.

14. Hafström, , Svensk Juristtidning 1958, p. 281Google Scholar, with further references.

15. See Backman's, Lagsamling, 1st edition, p. 54Google Scholar.

16. Hemmer, , Till frågan om sedvanerättens natur (Hämeenlinna 1922) p. 7Google Scholar.

17. See Supplement II to Svensk Lagsamling 1885–1895, edited by Skarin, , p. 682 et seqGoogle Scholar.

18. Tegengren, , “Samernas i Kemi lappmark rätt till bäverfänge”, in Bergsland, , ed., Samenes og sameområdenes rettslige stilling historisk belyst (Oslo etc. 1977) p. 49Google Scholar.

19. Ljungman, & Stjernquist, , Den rättsliga kontrollen över mark och vatten, Part I, 5th ed., p. 82Google Scholar.

20. Ljungman, & Stjernquist, , op. cit., p. 61Google Scholar.

21. See here States Offentliga Utredningar 1954: 37, p. 120Google Scholar.

22. NJA 1945, p. 96.

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24. Wikander, , Om rätt till undantag av fast egendom (ak. afh. Uppsala 1909) p. 7Google Scholar.

25. Juridiska Föreningens i Finland Tidskrift 1916 Bil., p. 97b no. 10Google Scholar.

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27. Hanke, Lewis, All Mankind Is One – A Study of the Disputation Between Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda in 1550 on the Intellectual and Religious Capacity of the American Indians (North, Illinois Univ. Press. De Kalb. III. 1974) p. 20Google Scholar.

28. The text of the Bull Sublimis Deus is reproduced in Hanke, , op. cit., p. 21Google Scholar; the text of the Bull Veritas ipsa, also of 1537, will be found in Utz, Arthur F., ed., La doctrine sociale de l'église à trovers les siècles. Documents pontiflcaux du XVème au XXème siècle (Paris etc. 1970) p. 396Google Scholar.

29. Royce, , “Indian Land Cessions in the United States”, 18th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (Pt. 2) (Smithsonian Institute, Wash. 1899) p. 539Google Scholar.

30. A translation into English will be found in Laws, U.S. Treaties etc. Respecting Public Lands, vol. ll, 1836Google Scholar.

31. Maine, , Ancient Law (John Murray 1906) p. 204Google Scholar.

32. Maine, , op. cit., p. 206Google Scholar.

33. Van Panhuys, Heereet alii, eds., International Law in the Netherlands, vol. I (Alphen aan den Rijn 1978) p. 130Google Scholar.

34. Van Panhuys, Heere etc., op. cit, p. 135Google Scholar.

35. Royce, , op. cit. (supra note 4). p. 577Google Scholar.

36. See Åqvist, , “Rättsbegreppens historiska användning på samiskt område”, in Bergsland, , ed., Samene og sameområdenes rettslige stillinghistorisk belyst (Oslo etc. 1977) p. 12Google Scholar.

37. When, on June 21–26, 1946, the University of Salamanca commemorated the 400th anniversary of the death of Fr. Francisco de Vitoria, the Swedish representative, Halvar G.F. Sundberg, Professor of International Law at the University of Uppsala, addressed the conference in the following words (taken from the unpublished manuscript): “Quelques années avant que Francisco de Vitoria fût élu primâ professeur de théologie à Salamanque, ma patrie s'était libérée de la suprématie danoise et était devenue un état national propre, mais elle devait encore pendant une vingtaine d'années souffrir les secousses des guerres civiles avant la stabilisation d'un pouvoir central, qui la rendait capable de prendre part au développement du droit international comme état souverain. II va de soi que les circonstances troublées qui regnait au Nord pendant la vie de Francisco de Vitoria ne favorisaient pas les études et les sciences. Nous n'eûmes done pas de chance de jouir directement de l'enseignement de Francisco de Vitoria. Cela n'était le cas qu'indirectement. Ses doctrines venaient à nous par l'intermédiaire de l'homme qui était destiné à recueillir les fruits scientifiques des travaux du pionnier Francisco de Vitoria. L'influence de Hugo Grotius devenait autant plus grande en Suède. Par sa participation à la grande guerre européenne du dix-septième siècle, la Suède au cours de quelques années était devenue une puissance de premier rang, et elle avait raison de réclamer les services du premier savant de droit international de ce temps. En seize cent trente quatre Hugo Grotius fût nommé ambassadeur de la Suède à la cour française, la place la plus importante que la Suède avait à donner. Là il restait le representant de la Suède pendant onze ans, presque jusq'à sa mort qu'il reçut en seize cent quarante cinq pendant un voyage de la capitate suédoise, Stockholm, à sa patrie. Son influence en Suède n'était pourtant pas limitées à son activité en France. Le plus grand des rois suédois, Gustav II Adolf, range parmi les disciples de Hugo Grotius, et cela avant tout parce qu'il dans ses campagnes rigoureusement mettait en pratique le principe du droit des gens, qu'il faut faire la différence entre l'armée ennemie et les inhabitants paisibles dans le pays de l'ennemie. C'était précisement ce principe que Hugo Grotius avait appris de Francisco de Vitoria.”

38. Johnson, Amandus, The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware 1638–1664, vol. I (Univ. of Pennsylvania 1911) pp. 182–184Google Scholar.

39. Johnson, Amandus, op. cit., vol. II, p. 755 et seqGoogle Scholar.

40. Cf., note 37 supra.

41. (1823) 8 Wheat. 543, at 571.

42. Kail, Abraham, “Undersøgning af Finmarkens gamle og itzige Tilstand.” Nye Danske Magazin, Andet Binds Tredie Hefte, p. 90, § 10Google Scholar.

43. Speech in the Swedish Diet in 1871, see Riksdagens protokoll vid lagtima riksmötet år 1871, Första kammaren, 3rd vol., pp. 115, 116Google Scholar.

44. Raestad, Arnold, Norsk Historisk Tidsskrift. vol. 29, p. 418Google Scholar.

45. Raestad, , Norsk Historisk Tidsskrift, vol. 29, p. 443Google Scholar.

46. This Universal will be found under Ch. 10, sec. 22 of the Procedural Part in the Collection of Statutes of 1807.

47. Hielmstierne, & Stampe, , in Indstilling vedrørende Lappevaesendet, p. 8Google Scholar.

48. Hielmstierne, & Stampe, , op. cit., p. 8Google Scholar.

49. Elliot, Holger, Ur en domares liv (Stockholm 1958) p. 255 et seqGoogle Scholar.

50. Forssell, Hans, “Norrland 1571–1870”, Svensk tidskrift för literatur, politik och ekonomi, 1872, pp. 176, 177Google Scholar.

51. Intervention in the Diet on April 17, 1886, see Andra Kammaren, Protokoll No. 40, p. 10.

52. “This was the golden period of Bureaucracy, when the Authorities ruled everything, took care of everything, and nothing was of any concern to those outside, or below. This was in the time when ‘I’ of ‘We’ ruled, each in his domain, with unlimited power, yielding to no other authority than His Majesty and His representative in the country, untroubled by scrutinizing, troublesome Estates; and nor were they forced to listen to the so-called general opinion which at that time did not yet exist …” Ramsay, A., Från barnaår till silverhår, I, (Helsingfors 1949) p. 491Google Scholar.

52a. In 1747, Jacob Wilde published a major translation into Swedish of Pufendorf's works under the title Friherre Samuel Pufendorfs twenne böcker om menniskiors lefnads- och sammanlefnadsplicht. – In later times, when the Swedish multi-national empire was lost, Pufendorf was almost forgotten in Sweden. Professor Jägerskiöld dismisses him with the observation that he was “also active in Sweden” (Scandia vol. 28, p. 122)Google Scholar and in the Skattefjäll Case, the Supreme Court ignored him almost completely (judgment, p. 75). The best modern work on Pufendorf would seem to be Leonard Krieger, The Politics of Discretion – Pufendorf and the Acceptance of Natural Law, (University of Chicago Press 1965). There exists nothing equivalent in Sweden although Pufendorf spent the better part of his scholarly life in Sweden and indeed published his De Jurae Naturae et Gentium in Lund, Sweden, in 1672Google Scholar.

53. The full text of “Kongl. Maj: ts Nådigste Forordning och Påbud Angåerrde Skogame och hwad därwid i acht tagas bör” is reproduced in Samernas vita bok II: 1 (Stockholm 1974) pp. 229a–229cGoogle Scholar.

54. Judgment, p. 115 and 116 et seq.

55. The Royal Letter of 1542 may be read as applying only to the “Lower Country” (of Sweden), in which case it would not apply to Delaware; but in that case it could not be invoked against the Lapps either, because the Lower Country did not include the Lapp Territories.

56. Judgment, pp. 50, 52.

57. The Skattefjä'll Case was the biggest case ever to be litigated in the Swedish Supreme Court. All in all, the judicial proceedings lasted for 15 years; the documentation collected by the Lapps has been published in a 17-volume series called Samernas Vita Bok, edited by their legal counsel Mr Tomas Cramér.