ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on how social constructionism and discourse analysis relate to the dominant theory and methodology of criminal law and legal scholarship in Sweden. Contemporary feminist legal studies in Sweden are often based on a social constructionist theory and methodology of law. Studies of criminal law and men's violence against women, however, are an important exception. In contemporary Swedish criminal legal scholarship, law is most often conceptualized as a formal, closed and coherent system of rules and principles. Criminal law has traditionally had a relatively low-key role in the Nordic welfare states. The defensive model of criminal law policy builds on neoclassical values and stresses that values such as legality, proportionality and fairness cannot be subordinated to the need to prevent crime through criminalization. Dogmatic criminal legal scholarship is comprehended as an internal systematic perspective within boundaries that are set up by the legislator and the courts.
