ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the main components of the legal construction of the state's right to ownership of land in the Sami traditional living areas and the Sami usufruct rights to the areas. It explains the use of immemorial prescriptive rights and the discussions regarding Sami taxed lands, lappskatteland, in the context of the Reindeer Herding Act of 1886. According to the Supreme Court, the foundation for the Reindeer Herding Act of 1886 was based on the fact that all authorities of the Swedish state had deemed land to be owned by the state, and that Sami land rights were in the form of usufruct rights. In 1966 the expert witness for the Sami parties, Gunnar Prawitz, made a lengthy descriptive explanation of Sami history. Prawitz's analysis was that the Sami parties' rights were private rights, resulting from long-term land use and not Swedish state law and that the Sami had always considered themselves to be owners of their lands.
