ABSTRACT
The Swedish legal system belongs to the family of civil law and its primary source of law is statutory law. Criminal cases are decided by the general courts (district courts, courts of appeal, and the Supreme court), whereas cases concerning coercive mental health care are decided by the administrative courts. In addition to the general and administrative courts, there is a number of specialised courts, including environmental courts and labour courts. Forensic psychiatric investigations (FPI) in Sweden are ordered by the court and thus merely intended to inform the choice of sanction. Risk assessments can be made within Swedish FPIs if the court has asked the question if there is a risk of relapse into serious criminality. In Sweden, FPIs are commissioned by the court and conducted by a state authority, the National Board of Forensic Medicine. In other words, they are not commissioned by parties to the criminal proceedings or conducted by experts selected by the parties.
