Criminal Law

The research at Örebro University on criminal law and criminal procedure could be characterized as diverse with strong international features. One of the common features in the research is the focus on victim rights. Associate Professor Märta Johansson conducts a highly relevant project on the perspectives and needs of victims of human trafficking, which both adopts a national and international perspective on victim rights. It considers both the effect of the Swedish rules on human trafficking for victims and to what extent the Swedish rules on human trafficking conform to international law. The victim is also the key focus for Professor Laura Ervo’s multi-national research project which examines how the European Protection Order can enhance the situation for the victim. This is a project involving researchers from several Member States where practice from several EU Member States is compared to find the most appropriate solution to ensure the rights of the victims. Senior Lecturer Jacob Öberg’s research also takes victim rights as a case study for a broader study on how the subsidiarity principle limits the exercise of EU criminal law competences. 

The focus of basic rights for participants in the criminal justice system is a key aspect of the research conducted at the department.  Laura Ervo supervises a research project on the organization of the criminal proceedings conducted by doctoral student Eija Tiukuvaara, which examines how a proper and effective preparation of the criminal procedure can help to ensure that the principle of fair trial is conformed when conducting the trial. The research at the department also underscores the importance of the European Union for the development of national criminal law. Jacob Öberg conducts a project on the “supra-nationalization of EU criminal law” where he looks at to what extent the Member States still can claim to be sovereign in the field of EU criminal law.

The department is also involved in more traditional research on criminal law. Professor Josef Zila is currently revising his Karnov/Lexino commentary on the Swedish Tax Offences Act and amending his authoritative text book on the Swedish Criminal Sanctioning System (Sw: Straffrättens påföljdslära, co-authored with Nils Jareborg). Professor Kerstin Nordlöf also strongly contributes to the research at the department. Her main focus is children and adolescents in criminal law.  In the project Criminal responsibility of an adolescent with a severe mental disorder at the time of the crime, which is financially supported by the Torsten Söderberg foundation, she investigates how the Swedish courts assess the requirement that there should be no reasonable doubts as to the accused’s culpability. Kerstin Nordlöf is also a co-researcher for a research project on legal support for children.  The project A comprehensive study of the legal support systems for children whose parent is criminal initiated by researchers at the University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa Japan, aims at to clarify necessary legal systems, social policies and supports for those children whose parents are criminals. Kerstin Nordlöf is finally a co-researcher in the international research group Net Against Cyber fraud initiated by Professor Sanchis at the University of Valencia which aims to study e-fraud from a global perspective. This project focusses on the application of the criminal process to a virtual environment.