The Swedish Instrument of Government 50 years (1975-2025). Popular Sovereignty and Separation of Powers. An overview of Swedish Constitutional History

Abstract

The Swedish Constitution consists of four constitutional acts, and one of them is the Instrument of Government (Regeringsformen). It was enacted in 1974 and entered into force 1st January 1975. This year, it has functioned as the most important constitutional act in Sweden for 50 years. Its name, the Instrument of Government, was used for the first time in 1634, when a constitutional act was issued to be valid during the minority of Queen Christina. It has then been followed by a series of Instruments of Government, issued in 1719, 1720, 1772 and 1809. The present Instrument of Government has undergone several changes since 1975, especially in 2011. In the article, I provide a brief outline of the Swedish constitutional history, especially with regard to the various constitutional acts that have existed, in order to place the Instrument of Government in its historical context. My main focus, however, is the 1974 Instrument of Government and how the balance between King and Parliament according to the 1809 Instrument of Government was replaced by popular sovereignty in 1974 and how separation of powers has, again, become more important during the last decades. This development has a close connection to the re-alignment of the Swedish constitutional tradition with common European values more closely defined through the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU and the European Court of Human Rights. Here, separation of powers is an integral part.