Cite using Harvard

Legal and public documents can be laws, Swedish government official reports and government bills but also parliamentary bills, minutes or decisions from various departments.

The following are instructions for how to cite Swedish legal and public documents. For instructions on how to cite legal and public documents from other countries, we suggest finding a citation guide from the country in question since these documents differs a lot between countries. You can also choose to follow the instructions below as far as possible. The most important thing is to be consistent in how you format the references.

These are some Swedish abbreviations used when citing legal and public documents:

Skr. = Official communications
Bet. = Report
Dir. = Committee terms of reference
Ds = Ministry publication series
Prop. = Government bills
SFS = Swedish code of statutes
SOU = Swedish government official reports

In-text citation

Template

(SFS/Prop./SOU Year:reference number)

Example

When you cite a law you should write the name of the law in your text:

If you want to cite a specific section of a law, you write the number of the section and paragraph in your text:

Reference list entry

Template

SFS/Prop./SOU Year:reference number Title. Place of publication: Publisher. URL [Accessed: date].

Example

In-text citation

Template

(Department, Year)

Example

Reference list entry

Template

Department (Year). Title. Place of publication: Publisher. URL [Accessed: date].

Example

Comments

• The date of retrieval should be stated for all electronic sources, in addition to the year of publication. This is written as shown above, in square brackets with the word "Accessed:". The reason for this is that electronic sources may theoretically get edited and the information in them can then change. For this reason it is important to indicate at what time you studied an electronic source.