part iii • contemporary legal history • henrik wenander of the legislative role of the King in Council, meaning it now was responsible for legislative proposals to the Riksdag and for adopting legislation in the form of förordningar (ordinances).20 The king’s formal role as Sweden’s representative in concluding international agreements was now given to the government.21 In this fashion the new fundamental law abandoned the constitutional figure of the King in Council in favour of the new constitutional actor, the government.22 What remained of the 1809 Instrument of Government was swept away, making room for the new construct of the modern, democratic, parliamentarian constitution, which would state the law as it actually was. After the adoption of the new fundamental law, the study of constitutional law in Sweden lost its existing focus on historical developments. Yet the new constitution noticeably did not lead to a renewed interest in constitutional law – not until the 1990s and the Europeanization of Swedish law. By virtue of the 1974 Instrument of Government, the government simply took over the formal role held by the King in Council and acted as the Royal Majesty. Yet the ghost of the old Royal Majesty can be glimpsed now and again. The first example is the role of the speaker of the Riksdag in proposing the new prime minister – part of the compromise over the 1974 Instrument of Government. The speaker is elected from among the members of the Riksdag, and is thus an elected politician who is supposed to put aside his political views when carrying out the task of appointing a prime minister.23 This task can be understood only in terms of the king’s role under the1809 Instrument of Government and the Torekov compromise: the speaker has taken on what used to be the king’s role as an impartial authority, above politics. 20 Instrument of Government, ch 4, s 1. 21 Nils Stjernquist, ‘Grundlagberedningskompromiss i statschefsfrågan’ (The Constitutional Drafting Committee’s compromise regarding the head of state), Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift 74/4 (1971), 377; Prop. 1973:90 (n 24) 170 ff., 207 ff., 357 f. 22 Instrument of Government, ch 6, s 1. 23 Instrument of Government, ch 4, s 2; Proposition (Prop.) (Government Bill), Prop. 1973:90 med förslag till ny regeringsform och riksdagsordning m.m. med förslag till ny regeringsform och ny riksdagsordning m.m., 257. 172
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