ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates the dynamics within current Nordic legal cultures; that is the oppositional struggle between ideological and legal forces and their influences in societal development. It analyses the different, especially Swedish, contexts, which has created this new late modern legal culture regarding the Sami and Sami law. During the past three decades, Sami law has been increasingly visible in Scandinavian legal cultures. Today, Sami law is considerably established not only in Scandinavian case law but also in discourses within legal scholarship and legal politics. The late modern legal paradigm has identified Sami law as a new field of law, which is visible in the legal culture, and the late modern nation state identifies minorities and new hierarchies, and introduces reconciliation as a new conflict resolution method. Historically, the disregard of Sami law and culture in the Swedish courts can be compared with the relationship between the Sami population and the representatives of the Swedish Church.
