Between Indictment and Judgment

The court may not convict the defendant of any offence other than that described in the prosecution's statement of offence, but must independently make the legal assessment of the offence. These rules, which are central to criminal proceedings, are set out in Chapter 30, Section 3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. However, it is not clear what it means that the court is bound by the description of the offence. As regards the legal assessment of the offence, the Swedish rule is challenged by the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, which states that the defendant must be allowed to defend himself even on points of law. The rule cannot therefore be applied in the way originally intended. In addition, the court, and to some extent also the defendant, can influence the basis for the assessment of what may be tried.

"The thesis deals with rules that are applied in all criminal cases and that have existed since our current Code of Judicial Procedure came into force more than 70 years ago," says Lars Edstedt.

Against this background, one might ask whether research is needed on how the rules should be understood and handled - do they not work?

“The rules work without problems in most cases, but it is not too unusual for difficult questions to arise. One example of this is the Supreme Court's decision in the high-profile "Snippa case" last autumn. "The reason I wanted to research this particular subject is that, when working in the courts, I have found that the rules on what can be examined can often cause problems," says Lars Edstedt.

The age of the rules and the fact that the legal situation has been and continues to be in a state of flux have made for stimulating research.

“Originally, the rules were intended to work in a different way than they do today. The rules studied in this thesis are central to the whole process, and their application has therefore been greatly influenced by the development of Swedish criminal procedure in recent decades. Nowadays, the defendant's opportunities to participate in the proceedings and respond to the accusation are emphasised in a completely different way than before, which is partly due to the impact of the European Convention as a source of law over the past 30 years.”

The thesis examines the Swedish rules, but also the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on the right to information about criminal charges. In addition, considerable space is devoted to questions such as what requirements can be placed on a description of the offence and how the court's interventions, the judge’s direction of the proceedings, should be designed. The thesis also contains studies of legal history and procedural law theory issues of importance for understanding the background of the current legal situation.

“I hope that the thesis may also be of interest to judges, prosecutors and lawyers who have to deal with difficult questions about what may be tried in criminal cases," says Lars and continues:

“One conclusion of the thesis, at an overall level, is that the procedural categories and concepts are important, but that they cannot always be decisive for how concrete problems are handled. Difficult questions of interpretation have no simple or preordained answers - ultimately they have to be decided based on the unique material available in the individual process. A procedural regulation cannot be a kind of exercise rule for the actors involved, but should be understood as a framework and starting point for individual judgements. But even with such a basic view, it is important to examine in more detail the nature of the limitations and requirements imposed by the rules.”