Sweden’s handling of war crimes during the passive years, 1948-2005

This is a project dealing with the recent history of how the Swedish legal authorities have handled the presence of war criminals (broadly defined) from other countries.

Specifically, it tries to answer two questions: why it took so long for the Swedish courts to start prosecuting foreign war criminals (legally, it had been possible since 1958) and why Sweden then suddenly, from 2005 and increasingly after that, became one of the most enthusiastic practitioners of this kind of trials.

It is mainly an archival study, but for the most recent part of the period also interviews will be used.

Theoretically, the study is inspired by Kathryn Sikkink´s concept of justice cascade which seels to understand how processes of transitional justice can be brought to the global stage by activists of transnational advocacy groups.

However, also these groups need the support of "friendly" states to be successful on the global arena and with the example of Sweden, it is the aim of this project to understand what it is that makes some states particularly receptive for the demands of activists that want to re-negotiate the scope of impunity in their homelands and what it is with some states that objectively could be expected to be disinterested in the plight of others that makes them take steps towards partaking in a global effort against impunity for atrocities.