Under various forms of
international cooperation, especially EU law, Swedish authorities are obliged
to recognise foreign administrative decisions. The point of departure under
Swedish law is that foreign administrative decisions have no legal status as
such, but need to be recognised in Swedish law. In Swedish legal discourse, it
is clear that foreign decisions are regarded as matters of ‘law’ and not only
‘facts’. There is some scope for Swedish authorities to review the foreign
decision in relation to public international law, EU law, or Swedish
constitutional law. However, this kind of review is seemingly unusual, as there
are no clear examples in the case law of the Swedish courts of precedent. The
overall picture is that Swedish law has accepted the recognition regimes
without controversies. This may be explained by the Swedish legal culture, with
its focus on written law, adopted by the democratically legitimate legislator.