The purposes of this thesis is study the European Court of Justice from a non legal perspective and investigate the courts possibility to advance its own preferred goals rather that of the member states in cases of non-compliance. Drawing on general principal-agent theory I construct a model from which I derive certain hypothesis mainly about under what circumstances we should expect the Court to be more sensitive to member states preferences and under what circumstances we should expect the Court to be less sensitive. These hypotheses are then tested empirically against all cases of non-compliance initiated by the European Commission against member states between 1953-2000. The results from the study are rather positive. The most important result is that when the threat of sanctions against the Court increases so does the Courts sensitiveness to member states preferences and when it decreases so does the Courts sensitiveness..

This paper deals primarily with the developmental potential and use of court -based mediation in Swedish law, and its relation to court-based conciliation and the judicial procedure as means to end a conflict.  In Chapter 42, Section 17 of the Swedish Code of Judicial Procedure, a judge, before the parties have their main hearing, can act as a mediator between the parties to settle the dispute. The judge should, according to the law, always try to make the parties come to an agreement before the main hearing. This obligation can be fulfilled either through the use of court-based conciliation, or court based mediation. Mediation as such is rarely used in Sweden, and one of the goals of this essay is to try to provide a tentative answer to why that might be the case.  The second goal is to try to find a consistent, yet flexible notion, of the concept of ?jurisdiction?, and to provide an explanation for the relation between mediation as an alternative method for dispute resolution and the judicial procedure.                                                                                                                                            .

This paper deals primarily with the developmental potential and use of court -based mediation in Swedish law, and its relation to court-based conciliation and the judicial procedure as means to end a conflict.  In Chapter 42, Section 17 of the Swedish Code of Judicial Procedure, a judge, before the parties have their main hearing, can act as a mediator between the parties to settle the dispute. The judge should, according to the law, always try to make the parties come to an agreement before the main hearing. This obligation can be fulfilled either through the use of court-based conciliation, or court based mediation. Mediation as such is rarely used in Sweden, and one of the goals of this essay is to try to provide a tentative answer to why that might be the case.  The second goal is to try to find a consistent, yet flexible notion, of the concept of ?jurisdiction?, and to provide an explanation for the relation between mediation as an alternative method for dispute resolution and the judicial procedure.                                                                                                                                            .

The main purpose of this essay was to study how the child's own view appeared in the office of family law investigations and in the following municipal court verdicts and if it had influenced the judgement and the verdict. We wanted to see if the child's age was important for the possibility to make oneself heard and if there had been changes overtime related to the consideration to the child's own view in investigations- and court context.To obtain answers to the questions, we decided to execute a qualitative case study, which exclusively was based on document analyses. We selected to examine a middle-sized municipal in the southern part of Sweden. We concerned only for children in the age of 8-12 years, who was affected by a court verdict either 1999 or 2003.Our study showed, among other things, that the majority of all children were interviewed. It also showed that the age of the children didn't affect the consideration the court took to the child's opinion.

Modern democracies rest on a foundation of values essential to their prosperity. Two of those values are freedom of speech and political equality. To many, these values appear to coexist effortlessly. However, what this thesis aims to expose are some of the problems that quickly arise when attempts to interpret the values fail.The thesis investigates a specific US Supreme Court ruling called Citizens United. The ruling enabled corporations and unions to use their own treasuries for unlimited independent political expenditures.

The purpose of this study was to examine children's participation in court proceedings on supervised visitation and to analyse the descriptions of children in court verdicts. Eleven verdicts concerning supervised visitation resolved in 2014 were collected from two district courts in Stockholm County and studied with a qualitative textual analysis. The material was analysed with participation levels influenced by the ladder of participation for children developed by Roger Hart and with the theory of sociology of childhood. Our findings showed that children's opinions were mentioned in eight of the verdicts. In four verdicts the children's will influenced the courts decisions.

Reaching shared understanding during court hearings is a prerequisite to ensure a fair trial and maintaining legal certainty. Every month between 2,000 and 3,000 court hearings in Sweden make use of interpreters. Interpreter-mediated conversations involve an extra discourse compared to monolingual conversations which increases the risk of misunderstandings.Using methodology of conversation analysis the study explores how bilingualism is expressed during interpreter-mediated court hearings, at which occasions the Spanish-speaking laymen switch to Swedish and what function the codeswitching fulfills. The study identifies patterns in codeswitching and categorizes them into six different types. Furthermore the ideology of monolingualism in court is challenged and the advantages and disadvantages of codeswitching is discussed.The analysis concludes that even though certain types of codeswitching lead to delays in the conversation, the interaction is mostly favored by the Spanish-speaking party understanding some Swedish.

In May 1675, the local court in the northern Swedish parish of Nordingrå, which had approximately 1,000 inhabitants, held a preliminary investigation on 113 persons accused of witch-craft and superstition. For the majority of the 113, the main accusation was to have travelled to Blåkulla, a place where witches according to Swedish folklore participated in satanic festivities and rites led by the Devil himself. The preliminary investigation was held at the request of The Royal Witch-craft Commission. Nordingrå belonged to the province of Ångermanland, one of the Swedish provinces with the highest number of witch trials in the 1670s. The trials in Nordingrå have, more or less never been examined before, mainly due to the fact that no sentences or penalties were ever imposed.The purpose of this paper is to examine social relations and social conflicts in Nordingrå with the records from the witch trial 1675 as the primary source.

This paper is a critical evaluation of the Swedish system with special mediation. The district court has the opportunity, in cases that are amenable to out-of-court settlements, to refer the dispute to special mediation. However, this is extremely rare, even though the legislature expressed a desire to increase the use of alternative dispute resolution. In 2011, a series of measures were taken to increase the use of mediation and strengthen mediation attractiveness. What effect can be inferred from these actions today, over three years after their introduction? This study analyses the main reasons offered for why mediation is not used more, and what should be done to increase the use of mediation.

The aim of the study learn about if the court assesses boys and girls on an equal basis, or if there are norms of gender constructed in society that appears in the Administrative Court of Appeal. And we want to find out how norms, in this field, are different between boys and girls. We used the judgments of the Administrative Court of Appeal and went through the descriptions of the girls and boys. What basis was used in the judgment of LVU, to do this, we used discourse analysis. We summarized all judgments and then described the outcome of each requirement in LVU, we categorized the results for three requirements, other socially destructive behavior, criminal activity and abuse.

A valid arbitration agreement constitutes a bar to court proceedings as well as a prerequisite for arbitral proceedings. In NJA 2008 p. 406 and NJA 2012 p. 183, the Swedish Supreme Court applied the so-called doctrine of assertion with respect to the issue of whether a dispute should be settled by arbitration or litigation. Prior to these judgments, it was uncertain if the doctrine of assertion was applicable regarding this issue.

The aim of this study was to examine the District Court´s argumentations about the children´s best interests in rulings regarding custody of children, and to analyse the argumentation from a gender perspective. Rulings from the District Court from 2012 have been the basis for this study and a qualitative method has been used, argumentations analysis. The study shows that cooperative problems between the parents are the main reason why the District Court finds joint custody to be excluded. There are also argumentation regarding parent´s ability to ensure the children?s safety.

Title: "In the verdict, reality is reconstructed" - a documentary study of how sex is reproduced in verdicts of LVU-cases.The aim in our study is to see how existing circumstances revolving power between the gender, are contained in court, through language and differences in the sentences and expressions that are used in the verdicts. In this study we have reviewed verdicts about young people who are taken in to custody care by Lag (1990:52) med särskilda bestämmelser om vård av unga.We have reviewed verdicts from the county administrative court in Kalmar, from January in 2007 to October in 2008. Through the analysis we have taken into considerations and worked with earlier research and litterateur containing different theoretical approaches to feminism.The result of the study shows, that despite of a neutral law, girls and boys, women and men are judged and treated different, because of their sex. Depending on your sex, you are expected to behave according to norms and values. These norms and values are not the same for girls and boys.

The purpose of this essay is to examine and explain how the Swedish mining court of Stora Kopparberget (the Great Copper Mountain) implemented its judicial legislation between 1641-1682. Questions are asked about which counts of indictments the court tried, which sentences they handed out, in what quantities and how these results looks in comparison with other contemporary courts. The index cards of the court judicial protocols are the primary source of information. The methods are those of quantity- and comparative analysis.The results show that theft of copper ore was the most common crime ransacked by the court. Other common crimes were (in order): sin of omission, transgression of work directions, fights, slander and disdain, trade of stolen ore, failing appearance in court etc.Fines were by far the most common sentence followed by shorter imprisonments, gauntlets, loss of right to mine possession, twig beating, loss of work, penal servitude, banishment, ?wooden horse riding? and finally military transcription.

This paper seeks to explore how victims of crime and defendants are portrayed in sexual assault cases. Lately, more and more voices have been raised in appal against values demonstrated in court decisions and we?ve seen the implementation of a new sexual assault legislation in attempt to increase people?s sexual integrity. Yet, at the same time, there is still a tremendously low amount of reported sexual assaults that go to trial and even fewer result in conviction. This paper is not an attempt to scrutinize the legal system, but to draw attention to what values are portrayed in sexual assault cases.