Avrätta eller avskaffa? - En rättshistorisk utredning av dödsstraffets avskaffande
(2014) LAGF03 20141Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Dödsstraffet är ett straff som har diskuterats i hundratals år. Jag är själv fascinerad av de argument som har använts, och fortfarande används, för och emot bibehållandet av strafftypen. Genom att studera förarbeten och doktrin har jag försökt utreda hur och varför Sverige avskaffade dödsstraffet. Jag har också jämfört den svenska processen med den som pågick vid ungefär samma tid i Danmark. Båda länderna valde att avskaffa dödsstraffet först ur den allmänna strafflagen och därefter cirka 40 år senare, på 1970-talet, ur den militära strafflagen. Däremellan ockuperades Danmark av Tyskland vilket ledde till att Danmark återinförde dödsstraffet retroaktivt. Detta är intressant då en sådan potentiell situation användes som argument för... (More)
- Dödsstraffet är ett straff som har diskuterats i hundratals år. Jag är själv fascinerad av de argument som har använts, och fortfarande används, för och emot bibehållandet av strafftypen. Genom att studera förarbeten och doktrin har jag försökt utreda hur och varför Sverige avskaffade dödsstraffet. Jag har också jämfört den svenska processen med den som pågick vid ungefär samma tid i Danmark. Båda länderna valde att avskaffa dödsstraffet först ur den allmänna strafflagen och därefter cirka 40 år senare, på 1970-talet, ur den militära strafflagen. Däremellan ockuperades Danmark av Tyskland vilket ledde till att Danmark återinförde dödsstraffet retroaktivt. Detta är intressant då en sådan potentiell situation användes som argument för bibehållandet av dödsstraffet i Sverige i början av 1900-talet. Andra argument som användes i debatten både i Sverige och i Danmark var bland annat dödsstraffets avskräckande effekt, risken att någon blir felaktigt dömd och tanken att straffet skulle förbättra brottslingen. Även argumenten för att behålla dödsstraffen såg ungefär likadana ut i både Sverige och Danmark. Framförallt menade de som var för dödsstraff att det krävdes för att befolkningen skulle avskräckas från att begå de grövsta brotten. När det sedermera kom att handla om dödsstraffet i den militära lagstiftningen spelade ländernas internationella åtaganden, främst medlemskapet i FN, stor roll. För att kunna ratificera vissa konventioner krävdes att dödsstraffet utplånades ur lagstiftningen, vilket båda länderna genomförde. Jag påstår alltså att avskaffandet av dödsstraffet skedde till stor del av samma skäl i de båda länderna. Detta är på inget sätt en förvånansvärd slutsats då båda länderna är mycket lika inte bara vad gäller lagstiftning överlag utan också kulturellt. (Less)
- Abstract
- The death penalty has been debated for hundreds of years. I am personally fascinated by the arguments used for keeping and removing the penalty from the legislation. I have by studying the legislative history and doctrine tried to research how and why Sweden abolished the death penalty. I also compared the results with the same process in Denmark. Both countries chose to abolish the death penalty only from the civil criminal law at first. About 40 years later, in the 1970’s, the penalty was removed from the military criminal law as well. In between these two events Denmark was occupied by Germany. This caused Denmark to reinstate the death penalty retroactively once the war was over to deal with certain crimes committed during the... (More)
- The death penalty has been debated for hundreds of years. I am personally fascinated by the arguments used for keeping and removing the penalty from the legislation. I have by studying the legislative history and doctrine tried to research how and why Sweden abolished the death penalty. I also compared the results with the same process in Denmark. Both countries chose to abolish the death penalty only from the civil criminal law at first. About 40 years later, in the 1970’s, the penalty was removed from the military criminal law as well. In between these two events Denmark was occupied by Germany. This caused Denmark to reinstate the death penalty retroactively once the war was over to deal with certain crimes committed during the occupation. The fact that they did so is interesting since a potential situation like that was used as an argument for not removing the death penalty in Sweden. Other arguments used in the debate both in Sweden and Denmark was amongst others the discouraging effect of the death penalty and the risk of comdemning an innocent person. Also the thought of punishment as a way of treating the criminals and giving them an opportunity to improve was important. The arguments for keeping the death penalty was also similar in both countries. The most important one was the fact that the death penalty really had a discouraging effect and without it the people would start committing the worst crimes imaginable.
When the countries were deciding on abolishing the death penalty from their military criminal laws their international commitments were of importance. Especially their membership in the United Nations mattered since in order to ratify some conventions and protocols they had to remove the death penalty from all legislation. It is in my opinion quite similar reasons behind both countries decisions to abolish the death penalty. This is in no way surprising considered the similar legislation and culture in Sweden and Denmark. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/4449393
- author
- Lundström, Veronica LU
- supervisor
-
- Per Nilsén LU
- organization
- course
- LAGF03 20141
- year
- 2014
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Rättshistoria, Dödsstraff, Straffrätt
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 4449393
- date added to LUP
- 2014-06-17 13:48:01
- date last changed
- 2014-06-17 13:48:01
@misc{4449393,
abstract = {{The death penalty has been debated for hundreds of years. I am personally fascinated by the arguments used for keeping and removing the penalty from the legislation. I have by studying the legislative history and doctrine tried to research how and why Sweden abolished the death penalty. I also compared the results with the same process in Denmark. Both countries chose to abolish the death penalty only from the civil criminal law at first. About 40 years later, in the 1970’s, the penalty was removed from the military criminal law as well. In between these two events Denmark was occupied by Germany. This caused Denmark to reinstate the death penalty retroactively once the war was over to deal with certain crimes committed during the occupation. The fact that they did so is interesting since a potential situation like that was used as an argument for not removing the death penalty in Sweden. Other arguments used in the debate both in Sweden and Denmark was amongst others the discouraging effect of the death penalty and the risk of comdemning an innocent person. Also the thought of punishment as a way of treating the criminals and giving them an opportunity to improve was important. The arguments for keeping the death penalty was also similar in both countries. The most important one was the fact that the death penalty really had a discouraging effect and without it the people would start committing the worst crimes imaginable.
When the countries were deciding on abolishing the death penalty from their military criminal laws their international commitments were of importance. Especially their membership in the United Nations mattered since in order to ratify some conventions and protocols they had to remove the death penalty from all legislation. It is in my opinion quite similar reasons behind both countries decisions to abolish the death penalty. This is in no way surprising considered the similar legislation and culture in Sweden and Denmark.}},
author = {{Lundström, Veronica}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Avrätta eller avskaffa? - En rättshistorisk utredning av dödsstraffets avskaffande}},
year = {{2014}},
}