The Adoption Process in Sweden

Sweden, a constitutional monarchy, with a racially mixed population of more than 9,000,000,1 has a highly developed welfare system. It is a strongly decentralised country where most services provided for the benefit of or relating to children are the responsibility of the social welfare board in each of Sweden's 290 municipalities.

Sweden is a civil law country with a constitution which was formally adopted in 1809 but, until relatively recently, of little relevance to the making and practice of domestic law.2 As in many other civil law countries, Parliament (the Riksdag) is by far the most powerful branch of government with little scope remaining for judicial discretion to interpret and develop the law and therefore little in the way of case law for a study such as this to draw from. The roots of the law relating to children lie in the Code which initially addressed marital matters and has existed since 1734.3 The “Code of 1734“ (as it is referred to in Sweden) was divided into sections based on subject matter, but only one or two of the initial paragraphs are still operative. What has survived is the sectional arrangement which provided a basis for introducing child related laws in the early 20th century. These laws, concerning parental rights and duties, were consolidated in the Parental Code of 1949 and have subsequently been added to and amended many times. Family law cases are heard in Sweden's general court system, usually by three lay judges and one professional judge.