to regulate the norms of work agreements, but also to create an instrument of industrial peace.400 For example, the proposed bill on collective agreements meant that during the period of agreement, neither of the parties could take industrial action in order to bring about a change in the agreement or because of a dispute about the interpretation or the application of the agreement (“legal disputes”).On the other hand, disputes arising from a “conflict of interest” would not be included in obligatory arbitration, which meant that the parties were allowed to take industrial actions.401 In conformity with the ideas of the Olin-Åkerman memorandum from1907and the committee on work agreements of 1907-09, the government moreover proposed that a special labour court should be established whose task it would be to settle disputes about collective agreements.The proposal for an act on individual contracts, among other things, regulated the parties’ rights and obligations. The legal-political argumentation in favour of the proposed acts swung between invoking freedom of contract, the need for legislation to protect the weaker party and social order, and not least of an almost natural law argumentation.With reference to the work agreement’s “purely private law nature”, criminal sanctions were rejected. Liability to pay damages, in accordance with “the nature of things” would arise for the party who broke the agreement without valid reason or affected the conditions of the agreement.The government’s position, however, was not firmly welded together. Instead, the proposal developed an obscure argumentation about the boundary between private and criminal law not being determined once and for all.Thus certain breaches of contracts could bring about other sanctions than damages because of “a higher degree of danger in the will p a r t i v, c h a p t e r 8 196 400 See also Justice Marks von Würtemberg in the Council of Legislation (Sw. Lagrådet):“…kollektivaftalets naturliga hufvuduppgift att befrämja arbetsfreden”. Prop. 1910:96, p. 154. 401 Prop. 1910:96, Förslag till lag om kollektivaftal (Collective Agreement Act Bill), section 8, pp. 5, 8-9, 43, 48-50.
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