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Norms and legal rules : An investigation of the tunnel construction through the Hallandsås ridge

Baier, Matthias LU (2003) In Lund Studies in Sociology of Law 17.
Abstract
In 1992 Swedens biggest tunnelproject begun. Two 8.5 km tunnels should cross a big ridge in southern Sweden which was seen as an obstacle to a fast and efficient railway line connecting Oslo and Gothenburg with Malmö and Copenhagen. However, the project had to stop in 1997 due to environmental damages. With only a third of the tunnel accomplished, the project was also much delayed and had a heavy budget overdraft. This socio-legal dissertation departes from the ambition to answer the overall question how this environmental accident could happen and what role the law played. The law is considered to be a subcategory of norms, and therefore is this latter category used to understand the project and the law. Thus, the purpose of this... (More)
In 1992 Swedens biggest tunnelproject begun. Two 8.5 km tunnels should cross a big ridge in southern Sweden which was seen as an obstacle to a fast and efficient railway line connecting Oslo and Gothenburg with Malmö and Copenhagen. However, the project had to stop in 1997 due to environmental damages. With only a third of the tunnel accomplished, the project was also much delayed and had a heavy budget overdraft. This socio-legal dissertation departes from the ambition to answer the overall question how this environmental accident could happen and what role the law played. The law is considered to be a subcategory of norms, and therefore is this latter category used to understand the project and the law. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to understand and describe this project in terms of norms. A secondary purpose is to develop a method for this.



The theoretical point of departure is norms in general. A new perspective on norms is however applied in this study. This new perspective suggests that societal systems such as economy and politics can have normative effects and are therefore included in the concept of norms. Another assumption is that norms guide actions. A socio-legal perspective entail that the project is investigated from three perspectives: the course of events, the legal dimension and the normative dimension. After the course of events is described, the legal dimension is analysed in order to find the decisions and the rules that matters in the project. Then the normative dimension is reconstructed with a heuristic model. Finally, a ‘norm' that has guided the actions in the project is constructed. This ‘norm' is built up by four action-oriented systems: the socio-cultural system, the political-administrative system, the economical system and the natural system.



The dissertation comes to the result that we can talk about a normative structure that dominates the project and that the law is part of this structure. This is due to the strong consensus about the basic values which the project is deeply rooted in and to the fact that the law seems to express the normativity of other action-oriented systems, but less so the socio-cultural or the natural systems. Further, the study indicates that the political system seems to intervene in the process of evaluating what is technically possible. Finally, the overall normative perspective adopted here, is thus a way to understand how the law covariates with other normative systems and what the effects are of this. It has also been possible to describe this in figures, however in broad outlines. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Popular Abstract in Swedish

Tunnelbygget genom Hallandsåsen har utvecklats på ett sådant sätt och fått sådana konsekvenser, att frågan hur projektet skall förstås och förklaras är viktig. Vill man studera vilka mekanismer i samhället som kan förhindra projektets förlopp eller dess konsekvenser, bör man först förstå projektet. Matthias Baiers bok handlar om hur man med normer kan förstå och beskriva tunnelbygget genom Hallandsåsen. Författaren har utifrån ett rättssociologiskt perspektiv undersökt vilka normer som driver utveckingen i projektet. Därmed ges också en förståelse av i vilket sammanhang rätten har fungerat. Boken beskriver projektets förlopp fram till stoppet i oktober och under-söker sedan projektets rättsliga... (More)
Popular Abstract in Swedish

Tunnelbygget genom Hallandsåsen har utvecklats på ett sådant sätt och fått sådana konsekvenser, att frågan hur projektet skall förstås och förklaras är viktig. Vill man studera vilka mekanismer i samhället som kan förhindra projektets förlopp eller dess konsekvenser, bör man först förstå projektet. Matthias Baiers bok handlar om hur man med normer kan förstå och beskriva tunnelbygget genom Hallandsåsen. Författaren har utifrån ett rättssociologiskt perspektiv undersökt vilka normer som driver utveckingen i projektet. Därmed ges också en förståelse av i vilket sammanhang rätten har fungerat. Boken beskriver projektets förlopp fram till stoppet i oktober och under-söker sedan projektets rättsliga och normativa dimensioner. Viktiga komponenter i den normativa dimensionen är en konsensus om grundläggande samhällsvärden, en tro på den tekniska förmågan samt villkoren för de politiska och ekonomiska systemen. Också rätten ingår i den normativa dimensionen, och i den starka normativitet som präglat projektet har medborgarperspektivet och det ekologiska perspektivet haft svårt att göra sig gällande. (Less)
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author
supervisor
opponent
  • Professor Sand, Inger-Johanne, Faculty of law, Oslo university
organization
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Sociology, Hallandsås, action-oriented system, normativity, tunnel construction, Sociologi
in
Lund Studies in Sociology of Law
volume
17
pages
197 pages
publisher
Lund University
defense location
Samarkand, AF, Lund University
defense date
2003-05-09 13:00:00
external identifiers
  • other:ISRN: LUSADG/SARS-03/1025-SE
ISSN
1403-7246
ISBN
91-7267-144-0
language
Swedish
LU publication?
yes
id
b8a7a82a-4ecb-476a-905b-095763e4d924 (old id 21096)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 16:10:07
date last changed
2021-03-08 11:26:08
@phdthesis{b8a7a82a-4ecb-476a-905b-095763e4d924,
  abstract     = {{In 1992 Swedens biggest tunnelproject begun. Two 8.5 km tunnels should cross a big ridge in southern Sweden which was seen as an obstacle to a fast and efficient railway line connecting Oslo and Gothenburg with Malmö and Copenhagen. However, the project had to stop in 1997 due to environmental damages. With only a third of the tunnel accomplished, the project was also much delayed and had a heavy budget overdraft. This socio-legal dissertation departes from the ambition to answer the overall question how this environmental accident could happen and what role the law played. The law is considered to be a subcategory of norms, and therefore is this latter category used to understand the project and the law. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to understand and describe this project in terms of norms. A secondary purpose is to develop a method for this.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The theoretical point of departure is norms in general. A new perspective on norms is however applied in this study. This new perspective suggests that societal systems such as economy and politics can have normative effects and are therefore included in the concept of norms. Another assumption is that norms guide actions. A socio-legal perspective entail that the project is investigated from three perspectives: the course of events, the legal dimension and the normative dimension. After the course of events is described, the legal dimension is analysed in order to find the decisions and the rules that matters in the project. Then the normative dimension is reconstructed with a heuristic model. Finally, a ‘norm' that has guided the actions in the project is constructed. This ‘norm' is built up by four action-oriented systems: the socio-cultural system, the political-administrative system, the economical system and the natural system.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The dissertation comes to the result that we can talk about a normative structure that dominates the project and that the law is part of this structure. This is due to the strong consensus about the basic values which the project is deeply rooted in and to the fact that the law seems to express the normativity of other action-oriented systems, but less so the socio-cultural or the natural systems. Further, the study indicates that the political system seems to intervene in the process of evaluating what is technically possible. Finally, the overall normative perspective adopted here, is thus a way to understand how the law covariates with other normative systems and what the effects are of this. It has also been possible to describe this in figures, however in broad outlines.}},
  author       = {{Baier, Matthias}},
  isbn         = {{91-7267-144-0}},
  issn         = {{1403-7246}},
  keywords     = {{Sociology; Hallandsås; action-oriented system; normativity; tunnel construction; Sociologi}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  publisher    = {{Lund University}},
  school       = {{Lund University}},
  series       = {{Lund Studies in Sociology of Law}},
  title        = {{Norms and legal rules : An investigation of the tunnel construction through the Hallandsås ridge}},
  volume       = {{17}},
  year         = {{2003}},
}