A Sámi Community Wins Case against the Swedish State in the Supreme Court

• Author: Øyvind Ravna
• Position: Professor Dr. Juris, Faculty of Law, and Founding Editor of Arctic Review on Law and Politics
• Pages: 212-214

© 2020 Øyvind Ravna. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribu-

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Citation: Øyvind Ravna. “A Sámi Community Wins Case against the Swedish State in the Supreme Court’’ Arctic Review on

Law and Politics, Vol. 11, 2020, pp. 19–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.23865/arctic.v11.2173

Arctic Review on Law and Politics

Vol. 11, 2020, pp. 19–21

19

Debates on Arctic Law and Politics

A Sámi Community Wins Case against

the Swedish State in the Supreme Court

Øyvind Ravna

UiT The Arctic University of Norway

On 23 January 2020, the Supreme Court of Sweden delivered an historic verdict in

favour of the Girjas sameby in a lawsuit against the Swedish State over a long-stand-

ing dispute over the right to administer hunting and shing rights in the Girjas land

management area. Rooted in Sámi customary law, ILO Convention 169 and the UN

Declaration of Indigenous Peoples, the verdict is a milestone in the development of

Sámi law in Sweden. It may also have an impact on the other Nordic countries, in

particular Norway.

The ruling by the Supreme Court of Sweden has put an end to a more than 10-year

dispute between Girjas sameby (the Girjas Sámi reindeer herding community) and

the Swedish State.1 The Girjas sameby claimed the exclusive right to manage hunt-

ing and shing in their herding areas above the so-called odlingsgränsen (agricultural

boundary) in Norrbotten län (county) in northwestern Sweden. According to Girjas,

this right is either anchored in the Swedish Reindeer Husbandry Act (1971:437) or

in immemorial use (urminnes hävd). The Swedish State, however, claimed that the

state as landowner solely holds these rights.

Prior to this ruling, the rights of the Girjas sameby to hunt and sh in their areas of

reindeer husbandry were considered to be enshrined in the Swedish Reindeer Hus-

bandry Act, much as the rights of reindeer herders in Norway are enshrined in the

Norwegian Reindeer Husbandry Act. However, similar to Norway, Swedish law does

not allow the Sámi community, or its members, to decide whether others should

be granted hunting and shing permits in Sámi traditional lands. This authority

lies with the county administrative board and is rooted in principles enshrined in a

reindeer husbandry act from as early as 1886, a law which is no longer applicable in

Sweden.

In its lengthy and comprehensive 92-page verdict, the Supreme Court rules that

Girjas sameby holds the exclusive right to manage hunting and shing in its area,