The Collection
The books in the Library of the Law Commissions have belonged to various committees that worked on reforms of Swedish legislation. Presented here is a brief history and timeline of the committees.
The book collection comes primarily from a series of committees and commissions that worked to reform Swedish legislation during the period 1811-1974. In parallel with these, there were other committees, and some of their books may have ended up in the book collection.
The first committee is the Law Committee (Lagkommittén), which worked during the period 1811-1841. Its task was to submit proposals for new laws in the areas of private law, criminal law and procedural law. Towards the end of the period, the so-called schedule committee (Tablåkommittén) worked to make clear comparisons between existing laws and the proposed laws.
A law committee worked during the period 1841-1851 to review the proposed laws. This committee later came to be called the Old Law Committee (Gamla lagberedningen). Despite all this work on renewing the laws, the result was only minor changes in private law. In the area of criminal law, however, the work led to a new Criminal Code in 1864.
In the 1870s, the idea of legal reform was raised again. The Ministry of Justice’s Law Bureau (Justitiedepartementets lagbyrå) worked for a short time, 1871-1874, but then the New Law Committee (Nya lagberedningen) was established, which worked during the years 1874-1894. Proposals for a new Enforcement Act, a principled report on the reorganization of the judicial system, and a number of proposals in the area of private law were the results of the work of the Old Law Committee. The Enlarged Law Committee (Förstärkta lagberedningen) was a larger committee that, during the years 1884-1887, reviewed the Old Law Committee's principled report of 1884 on the reorganization of the judicial system.
For a short period, 1895-1902, the work was returned to the Ministry of Justice’s Law Bureau. Then the Law Committee (Lagberedningen) was established again, which, during the period 1902-1974, worked primarily on private law and enforcement law issues. In parallel, other committees worked on criminal law issues.
Special committees worked on procedural law. In 1911, the Procedural Law Commission (Processkommissionen) was established, which submitted three final reports in 1926. In 1932, the Procedural Law Committee (Processlagberedningen) was established, which completed its work in 1944. This led to the Code of Judicial Procedure, which came into force in 1948 and is still in force.