It was not until the late 19th century that the first “real” environmental laws started to emerge. The development of environmental legislation in Sweden was to a large extent driven by the new challenges the society faced due to urbanisation and in- dustrialisation. Up until the late 19th century most of the Swedish population was dependant on agriculture. With industrialisation came first a huge demand for natu- ral resources followed by severe consequences for Nature. Emissions from point sources in Sweden had a strong negative impact on the environment and were det- rimental to people’s health and quality of life.
In principle, the legislation developed to tackle the new problems could be subdi- vided into three categories, 1) Natural Resource Legislation, with the purpose of regulating who had the right to ex-tract natural resources and later also the preser- vation of such resources 2) Environmental Protection Legislation, with the purpose of protecting humans and later also Nature from environmentally hazardous activi- ties and 3) Planning and Building Legislation, with the purpose of regulating the use of land for different purposes. To some extent the Legislation on Infrastructure (transport and energy production and distribution) can also be seen as one part of the environmental legislation that emerged in Sweden following the industrialisa- tion of the country.
4.1.1 Legislation on Natural Resources
The exploitation of natural resources such as mining and the exploitation of miner- als have a long history of regulation. Early laws on minerals and mining activities were generally aimed at providing opportunities to exploit those resources. Over time the mining laws have seen more and more provisions for environmental con- cerns. A new Mineral Law was enacted in 1991.
With the first Water Act, in 1918, a specific regime was created for the use of wa- ter resources, including among other things, a certain Permit Regime for water activities. This act was very much aimed at providing opportunities to expand hy- dropower into an industry with a growing demand for electricity. Five specific Water Courts were established to deal with the complex cases involving water activities and new hydro power plants. The exploitation of Swedish rivers not only brought with it a large supply of renewable energy, but also several environmental problems. The new Water Law of 1983 provided for stronger provisions for envi- ronmental protection, but kept in many ways the character of an exploitation law.
The environmental aspects of farming and forestry were expressly regulated at a fairly late stage. In 1979 a law on the management of agricultural businesses was enacted. Forestry, as an important provider of raw materials for Swedish industry, has been regulated in various ways. As for minerals, the early legislation was fo- cused on securing the production of raw materials through effective forest man- agement. In 1979, Sweden got its first modern law on forestry, the Forestry Act. In this Act, the environmental objectives and the production objectives are applied in an equal manner.
4.1.2 Legislation on Environmental Protection
During the early years of the last century, waste and waste water and other forms of pollution from cities and factories became a serious problem. In 1941 certain pro- visions for water contamination were included in the water law of 1918 (see above). It was nevertheless not until 1969 that Sweden got its first Environmental Protection Act which dramatically strengthened the role of the state in the protec- tion of the environment. Among other things it contained a Permit Regime for environmentally hazardous activities. This Permit Regime was based on an inte- grated approach including conditions on most disturbances from a plant in one and the same permit. A specific permitting body, the National Licensing Board was created to deal with the permitting matters. In return from having to apply for a permit, industries were protected from further restrictions from neighbours or au- thorities as long as they kept operations within the boundaries of their permit. Nu- clear activities and radiation were how-ever left outside this act. The Environ- mental Protection Act also contained provisions for environ-mental damage and compensation. These provisions were in 1986 transferred to a specific law on envi- ronmental damage. Another new feature in the Environmental Protection Act was its provisions on remediation of polluted areas. These provisions were based on the Polluter Pays Principle and stipulated, in principle, that the person or company that had polluted a certain site was also responsible for remediation (or clean-up) of that area provided the area could potentially pollute other land or water areas. In 1989, those provisions were strengthened to also include remediation of areas solely on basis that they were polluted.
The Act on Measures to Prevent and Limit the Consequences of Major Accidents
transposes the Seveso II Directive (96/82/EC) adopted by the European Commu- nity. It applies to all operations that use hazardous substances in quantities that exceed a given limit. The quantity that should be considered is the maximum quan- tity that is or can at any single moment be present in the operation. Operators have an obligation to prevent the occurrence of major accidents and to limit the effect they could have on people and the environment.
4.1.3 Court System
The Swedish judicial system includes a three instance structure of judicial proce- dures and two parallel types of courts: general courts, which deal with criminal and civil cases; and administrative courts, which deal with cases relating to public
administration. The general courts are organised in a three instance system: district courts, courts of appeal and the Supreme Court. Likewise, the administrative courts consist of county administrative courts, administrative courts of appeal and the Supreme Administrative Court. No public authority, not even Parliament, may determine how a court of law shall adjudicate or otherwise apply a rule of law in a particular case.
For matters pertaining to general environmental law, which means basically all cases that fall under the Environmental Code (see below) and secondary legislation enacted under the code, Sweden has developed a unique court organisation, the so- called Environmental Court System which is specifically designed to deal with the technical complexity of environmental matters.