377 medically educated people could openly provide advice on protective measures by the use of condoms without contravening the penal provisions of the Birth Control Act was consequently the subject of study and debate. There appears to have been extensive underground trade in contraceptives. The fact that the legislation constituted a dead-letter without any support from the public’s notion of justice was used as an argument for the repeal of the Birth Control Act in 1938. 5. Defamation of foreign powers, the King, the Riksdag or public officials Expressions which might place the foreign security of the Realm in danger by deteriorating Sweden’s relations with foreign powers were by the Criminal Law Act in 1864 referable to crimes of treason under Chapter 8. Defamation together with violation by an insulting act against the regent of a foreign power, while he was in Sweden, together with similar acts against the ambassadors and members of the mission of a foreign state in Sweden, could be punished by at most two years’ penal labour. After 1866, this scale of penalties was also applicable as regards defamatory or outrageous conduct toward a foreign power and to opinions aimed at promoting discord with a foreign power punishable under the FPA. The offence described by the FPA was broader than that of the offence under Chapter 8, CLA. Furthermore, a rule concerning provisional seizure had been introduced into the FPAby virtue of which written material, although not defamatory or abusive caused disagreement with a foreign power, could be confiscated without trial. Freedom of expression concerning foreign policy issues was thus during the period of the emergence of democracy more restricted under the FPA than under the CLA. It was originally provided under the FPA that all kinds of defamatory expression concerning the King, Queen or heir to the throne, according to the provisions of Chapter 5, Section 1 of the Code on Crime of 1734 {Missgärningsbalken), should be punished with decapitation. Following the entry into force of the Criminal Law Act 1864, the FPAwas amended so that the sanction provided by this crime should be determined in accordance with the general law, that is under Chapter 9, Section 5, CLA. The latter provision originally laid down a sentence of at least imprisonment for six months and at most penal labour for four years in respect of defamation or abuse by insultingacts against the King, Queen, Queen Mother or heir to the throne. In 1890 the minimum punishment under the provision was reduced to imprisonment for one month. In 1812, according to the FPA, defamation of the Riksdag or any of its chambers was to be punished with a fine. Chapter 9, Section 8, CLAlaid down fines or imprisonment for expressions of this kind. From 1866, the misuse of the freedom of the press was punished, according the FPA, by the general law
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