The Swedish Environmental Law Codification

Although most issues rather relate to what traditionally has been regarded as public law issues, most of this was historically studied as some kind of private law. Water law was reformed 1918 in order to pave the way for production of electricity and included a core of expropriation law with virtually no regard to environmental issues. Planning law developed step by step, starting with town planning. A major shift occurred with the Building Act of 1947, which gave much power to the municipalities since dense housing from then on had to be based on a detailed plan proposed by the municipality and approved by the County Administration.