Abstract
AbstractThe story of the making of a Nordic legal culture and court culture appears, at first glance, to be a story of what should not have been. Culture is about commonalities arising from common experiences. However, the similarities between the Nordic countries’ political history are limited, with no common institutions before the late nineteenth century, large language similarities but no common legal language, and—most importantly—no common legal procedure. Still, the natural conditions in the very north of Europe came to shape the political and legal systems in similar ways, stimulating the desire to create a Nordic legal culture in the second half of the nineteenth century, with the Nordic Meeting for Lawyers playing a crucial role. Hence, law in the Nordic countries shares several characteristics today: a strong legislative tradition and strong courts with lay participation, accessible legal language in legislation and court decisions and orality in legal procedure, a small number of legal professionals and a small and pragmatic legal science. These characteristics can be viewed as building blocks in an overarching characteristic of Nordic legal culture and court culture: dialogue.
Highlights
The story of the making of a Nordic legal culture and court culture appears, at first glance, to be a story of what should not have been
The Norwegian Minister of Justice Asbjørn Lindboe spoke of a Nordic legal culture at the Nordic meeting for heads of police in Oslo in 1932.3 In Danish newspapers in
Was this just a notion, or is there really a Nordic legal culture and even a Nordic court culture? If you ask a Nordic judge with international experience, he or she will confirm that the Nordic judges in international meetings often have the same viewpoints and take the same stands, as well as that they often socialise in the evening when the meeting is over
Summary
The Norwegian ambassador to Stockholm, former Prime mister Francis Hagerup, declared himself an advocate for a Nordic legal culture in 1916.1 The Swedish Prime minister Carl Gustav Ekman spoke in 1928 on the necessity of a Nordic legal culture.. A Nordic prosecutor would confirm that this is the case for Nordic lawyers, and for politicians the same would apply; people in all Nordic countries feel related and seek each other’s company when staying outside their region in Europe This very simple observation shows that there is a notion of Nordicness among Nordic lawyers and judges, as there is in general in the Nordic countries.. According to this model, the Nordic countries are generally characterised by a mentality of equality, collectivism, cooperation, stability, strong social norms, and a balance between past and future orientations.. If we compare with Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, we see that similarities are only coincidental.17 According to this model, there is a Nordic culture in general, both because the Nordic countries have common features and because they share more common features with each other than with other countries. What we will see is that the history of Nordic legal culture and court culture is the story of what should not have been, but still came to be
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