Företags försvar vid anklagelser om brott – betydelsen av den nordiska kontexten

AbstractIn recent years, several Swedish companies have been accused in the media, by NGOs, and via legal proceedings of engaging in criminal activities. Two of these companies, TeliaSonera and Lundin Petroleum have been the focus of substantial public attention. During the years following the revelations that TeliaSonera, a partly state owned telecommunications company, had committed bribery offences in Central Asia, the affair went from a public scandal in Sweden to a legal process in Sweden and abroad. Lundin Petroleum, a family owned oil company accused of participating in crimes against humanity in Sudan, has continuously denied the accusation by using a variety of denials and neutralizations. The current paper analyzes the strategies employed by these two businesses when defending themselves against allegations of criminal acts. Drawing on Stanley Cohen’s (2009) theoretical work on processes of denial and neutralization techniques, we have identified four main techniques used by the two companies to deflect allegations of criminal wrongdoing: literal denial; denial of knowledge; condemning the condemners; and appealing to a higher loyalty. In addition, we identify how the corporations emphasise their “Nordic values” by linking into a post-colonial discourse and justify their behaviour by relativising it. The article contributes to the discussion of neutralization strategies by pointing out the importance of the context in which a defence takes place

Legal Aid in Sweden

Sweden has a combination of public and private protection of legal expenses in civil cases. The public legal aid scheme is subsidiary to the legal expense insurance, which means anyone who had a legal expense insurance covering the current affair would not receive legal aid. The chapter aims at reviewing the current legal aid in the country with emphasis on the public legal aid scheme and the legal expense insurance. The text also includes discussions on the function of the legal aid scheme in relation to the welfare state and from an access to justice perspective, pointing out strengths and weaknesses of the legal aid policies and practices

The state as defendant – outline of a study

With two points of departures: (1) no state can avoid committing crimes, and (2) the crime the state commits varies with state formations, the paper is an outline of a study aimed to explore state crimes in a well develop democratic state with a good reputation when it comes to protecting human rights. This is done by using tree mechanisms exercising control of state actions, The Parliamentary Ombudsmen, Chancellor of Justice and The European Court of Human Rights, and examine the cases the Swedish state were hold accountable for between the years 2000 to 2010. Since the study is in progress, no results can be presented

The state as defendant – outline of a study

With two points of departures: (1) no state can avoid committing crimes, and (2) the crime the state commits varies with state formations, the paper is an outline of a study aimed to explore state crimes in a well develop democratic state with a good reputation when it comes to protecting human rights. This is done by using tree mechanisms exercising control of state actions, The Parliamentary Ombudsmen, Chancellor of Justice and The European Court of Human Rights, and examine the cases the Swedish state were hold accountable for between the years 2000 to 2010. Since the study is in progress, no results can be presented

Corporate strategies within a transnational regulatory field

This chapter will follow in Reza Banakar’s footsteps by investigating legal pluralism in a globalized world. It takes the transnational legal pluralistic reality surrounding corporations as its point of departure and examines how two corporations accused of misconduct manoeuvre around the legal pluralistic terrain to their advantage, and at the same time attempt to define which laws should be applicable within the field of corporate regulation. The examples are taken from two Swedish companies that have been the focus of various legal battles for suspected misconduct: the Telia Company (previously TeliaSonera) and Lundin Energy (previously Lundin Oil and Lundin Petroleum). In the analysis, I utilize Bourdieu’s analytical tool of ‘field’ and of struggles between social agents that possess various forms of capital (Bourdieu, 1993), to understand how the two multinational companies make strategic use of different and competing legal regulations

Controlling the Swedish state : Studies on formal and informal bodies of control

The dissertation aims to develop an understanding of the outcomes and limitations of formal and informal control of the Swedish state, and of the positions and strategies of the social agents involved in this field. The dissertation contributes with new perspectives on controls directed at the state, comparing various control organs (the Parliamentary Ombudsman, the Chancellor of Justice, the United Nations, the European Court of Human Rights and NGOs) and focusing on a wide range of wrongs and harms by the Swedish state. Paper I explores incidents for which the Swedish state and its agencies have been judged to be responsible by formal control organs. Paper II analyzes the accounts used by state representatives in judgments from formal control organs on issues related to migration. Paper III examines the characteristics of those who hold the state accountable via the European Court. Paper IV explores how formal and informal control organs frame problems in relation to the Swedish state’s treatment of residence permit applicants. The studies demonstrate that formal domestic control organs mainly direct criticisms at state agencies that focus on particular and procedural issues. International bodies of formal and particularly informal control publish criticisms of the state that focus on general and systemic issues. The dissertation highlights how control organs offer limited access to accountability, and how controls of the state may be perceived as both ineffective and counterproductive. Another conclusion is that the positions and strategies of the agents in this field are dependent on their specific capital (resources, knowledge and support). Control of the state is understood as a field of struggle for recognition and legitimacy, in which accusations are denied by representatives of the state and control organs balance their criticism in order to maintain credibility. Both informal control organs and those who hold the state accountable must adjust to the rules of the game or risk being defined out.At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Manuscript.</p