The formation of law in the Scandinavian countries took place in an original way, largely independent of the factors operating in continental Europe. The historical development of the Nordic countries was characterized by: the relative underdevelopment of the administrative hierarchy; the presence of free peasants; democratic forms of taking into account the interests of different strata of the population within the church parish, which led to compromise means of solving arising social conflicts; the constant adjustment of economic development to the conditions of patriarchal society. Consequently, in the Scandinavian countries a centralized state and unified law emerged early.
Beginning from XIII century in Sweden the legislation is consolidated. In the middle of XIV century two laws were issued, one regulating relations in the countryside and another one in cities. These acts were in force in Sweden for 400 years. During this time they were repeatedly changed and supplemented. An important role in the process of adapting these laws to the new conditions of public life was played by the courts.
In the 17th century Swedish judicial practice adopted many designs and principles of Roman law, copied in European countries, whereby those Roman elements became an integral part of Swedish law, of Swedish legal culture.
But we should not forget that the reception of the Roman law affected the Scandinavian countries insignificantly. And its main effect was to forge closer links with continental European law than with English law.
The close relationship between the Nordic legal systems can be explained by the fact that historically the Nordic countries have always had strong political, economic and cultural ties. It is true that the complete unification of the three kingdoms – Denmark, Norway and Sweden – was only temporary in nature.
It was formed as the Kalmar Union and existed from 1397 to 1523. But the connections between Sweden and Finland and between Denmark, Norway and Iceland were much stronger and survived for centuries.
In the tenth and sixteenth centuries Finland was conquered by Sweden and Iceland. Finland was conquered by Sweden and was part of the Swedish Empire until 1809, when Sweden was forced to cede Finland to Russia as a result of an unsuccessful war with Russia. The Russian state granted Finland considerable autonomy as an independent Grand Duchy, and the tsarist administration had little intervention in its legal system. Thus, when Finland separated from Russia after the October Revolution of 1917 and proclaimed its independence in 1918, its legal unity with Sweden was not considerably weakened.
Denmark, Norway and Iceland had been centrally ruled by the Danish royal family for more than four centuries, since the late fourteenth century, so that Danish law was essentially also in force in Norway and Iceland. In 1814. Denmark had to cede Norway’s territory to Sweden in 1814, but the Norwegians were able to gain a great deal of independence as part of the Swedish Empire and were granted full autonomy peacefully in 1906.
The general historical basis of Scandinavian law was Old German law. But of course each Nordic country developed its own local peculiarities. Since the 12th century the norms of Old German law were introduced in numerous land laws and later in city laws. Already from the first acts of the central government the process of unification and unification of law took place. In Sweden in the XIV century it was possible to unite the law of individual localities into a single land law and the law of nations into a single municipal law.
During the 17th-18th centuries the starting point of the formation of the Scandinavian legal systems were two legislative acts,
The first was the Code of King Christian V (“Danske Lov”), adopted in Denmark in 1683.
The second is the Swedish Code of Laws of 1734 (“Sveriges rikes lag”) (in 1687 it was extended to Norway under the name “Norske Lov”), and the second is the Swedish Code of Laws of 1734 (“Sveriges rikes lag”). (“Sveriges rikes lag”).
The Danish Code consists of the following sections:
1)on judicial proceedings;
2), on the church;
3) On secular estates, commerce, and family law;
4) on the law of the sea;
5) Law of property and inheritance;
6) criminal law.
The Swedish Code of 1734 has nine sections:
1) on marriage;
2) Parents and children;
3) Inheritance;
4) on real estate;
5) construction;
6) commerce;
7) on crimes (Criminal Code);
8) on the enforcement of judgments;
9) On judicial proceedings and the judicial system.
The code has 1300 paragraphs. Like the Danish Code, it was written in simple, clear vernacular language, and in the interest of greater specific regulation, it eschewed theoretical generalizations and instructive notions as they were introduced on the European continent in the 18th century by advocates of natural law.
It should be noted that the influence of Roman law on the Swedish Code of 1734 was insignificant. The authors of the Code turned to the traditions of the old Swedish land and town law. This can be seen in its structure, style, language, and in the absence of generalizing norms.
These two codes were the basis for the later development of both branches of Scandinavian law – Danish and Swedish. Of course, this development did not take place in isolation from continental Europe. But attempts to introduce law reforms which would structurally affect the existing system of law were made at certain stages (in the first half of the 19th century drafts for a general law similar to the French Civil Code were discussed), but they were unsuccessful.
It is unlikely that these acts could be considered as codes even at the time of their adoption. Rather, they should have been characterized as sets of existing legislation, since some parts of these legislative acts are not connected with each other in any way.
It is all the more impossible to recognize them as codes now that they include only a small part of the existing legislative provisions. And if the Swedish Act of 1734 does have a practical role – the role of a certain integrating factor of positive Swedish law, the Christian V Code has become a “museum piece,” although formally it is still in force.
The law of 1734, which is still in force today, practically does not include the provisions that were part of it at the time of its adoption. A number of sections have been completely overhauled: a new section on marriage was enacted in 1920; a section on litigation in 1948; in 1959 the revision of the old section on Inheritance resulted in the addition of a section by the same name, and even earlier, in 1949, the section on Parents, which had previously been missing, was removed from this section; in 1970 the section on Real Estate was completely updated. In the remaining sections, few of the old rules remain. Most of the previously existing provisions were replaced by separate laws, the norms of which form the core of the legal regulation of relations in the respective spheres.
At present the law, which does not fit into the wording of the 1734 Act, covers many areas of Swedish law: labour law, company law, laws on industrial property protection and social security, environmental protection, many parts of administrative law – in other words, basically all the areas of law that have appeared as the country developed socially and economically from the mid-19th century onwards.
The same cannot be said for the Danish Code, which has been preserved largely as a historical monument. The codified legislation represents far from a large part of the country’s current law. Both here and in Norway there is a clear attitude attaching importance to jurisprudence as a source of law. The role of jurisprudence is also important in Sweden, and this distinguishes Scandinavian law from the Romano-Germanic family of law, bringing it into some respects in line with the common law.
The centuries-long survival of the Swedish Code of 1734 and the Danish-Norwegian Code of 1683-1687 shows that over the years the law has been applied less and less frequently, and that it has gradually lost its function under the weight of the case law that has developed on its basis. This pattern of legal development also applies to the French Civil Code of 1804 and the German Civil Code.