ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how Sami hunting and freshwater fishing rights have been regulated in Swedish law and how the Swedish courts have subsequently applied relevant legislation. Sami land and water rights had already been recognized in certain Swedish legal documents, but there was no comprehensive understanding of the consequences on Sami reindeer herding. Reindeer Herding Act defined who had the right to herd reindeer and when, where, and how this could be pursued. The main aim of the act was to regulate legally the relationship between the livelihoods of the Swedish population of fixed abode and the nomadic Sami population, between farmers and reindeer herders. Even though hunting and fishing constitute traditional Sami livelihoods, and even though Sami land and water rights in Sweden are based on occupation and immemorial prescription, most Sami in Sweden today have no hunting and fishing rights. This circumstance also constitutes an important basis of political mobilization in the modern Swedish Sami community.
