Domstolens funktion i LVU-ärenden - behov av specialiserade barndomstolar?

• This article discusses the need for specialized courts within the field of child protection in Sweden. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has recently pronounced that the signatory states to the Child Convention are to consider the establishment of specialized courts to handle such cases. Consequently, as a signatory state, a discussion of this is necessary in Sweden, where general administrative courts, without requirements of specific knowledge or experience, review and decide child protection cases. The overall aim of this article is to raise the legal issues that need to be analyzed and considered in order to properly evaluate whether such specialized children’s courts need to be established, and if so, what function such courts should have. The starting point of the article is a comparison between the Swedish system and the system in the Australian state of Victoria, where specialized children’s courts deal with cases concerning child protection. Descriptions of both systems are given, put in an overall international context with regards to different legal traditions and the different approaches to specialized courts. Thereafter the two systems are compared with a special focus on judicial proceedings. By comparing the two systems, overall aspects of significant importance for the legitimacy of the child protection system as a whole are elucidated. These aspects are divided first into issues of more specific significance within child protection, i.e. a more defined analysis of the right to a fair trial, the impact of the principle of the best interest of the child and a child's right to be heard, as well as the requirements of a complete decisional basis in child protection cases. Second, issues concerning the role and function of the courts in the legal system as a whole are raised, including the distribution of power as set out and defined in politics, law and other fields. The article concludes with proposals for the current Swedish system.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Juridik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Law (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Child protection

specialized courts

role of the courts

function of the process

right to a fair hearing

access to justice

principle of the best interest of the child

complete decisional basis

therapeutic jurisprudence

domstolsprövning

LVU

specialicering

rätt till rättvis rättegång

barnets bästa

terapeutisk juridik

utredningsansvar

barnskydd

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)