The Girjas Case – court proceedings as a strategy to enforce Sámi land rights

Abstract

Even though Swedish case law clarifies that Sami land rights are private property rights, the implications for the legal system still remain unclear and debated. Since the political system has failed to clarify Sami property rights, Girjas sameby, as a representative of the reindeer-herding Sami, have turned to the judicial system to have these rights enforced. After more than ten years of legal proceedings, at the end of 2019, the Swedish Supreme Court will hand down its decision in the so-called Girjas Case. The heart of the lawsuit is who holds the hunting and fishing rights within a specific high mountain area in the north-western part of Sweden and thus who decides on the granting of licenses to others. The case illustrates the ongoing dispute between the Indigenous Sami people and the Swedish state over the meaning of property rights with respect to land within Sapmi, the homeland of the Sami. This chapter describes the historical background of the lawsuit and briefly outlines the legal assessments of the District Court and the Court of Appeal. In addition, the chapter discusses why litigation is being used by the Sami as a strategy to enforce Sami land rights within the legal system and the challenges associated with presenting historical perspectives in a court setting.