The Constitutional Commission of the Riksdag of 1809. Composition, work and results of activity

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyse the activity of the Constitutional Committee of the Riksdag in 1809, which aimed to prepare a draft of a new Instrument of Government, the fundamental constitutional act of the Kingdom of Sweden. The meeting of the Riksdag was preceded by turbulent events that ultimately led to the arrest and dethronement of King Gustav IV Adolf. The Riksdag's election of a new monarch was postponed due to the appointment of the Constitutional Committee and work on the new Instrument of Government (Regeringsformen). Many myths and ambiguities have grown up around its activities and the role of its individual members, which the author attempts to clarify and sort out in this article by referring to original documents, including the Commission's Memorial (Wördsamt memorial) submitted to the Riksdag together with the draft of the new constitutional act and other primary sources. The constitutional act prepared by the Commission has been in force in Sweden for more than 160 years and established the constitutional-legal construct of a constitutional monarchy, albeit with different constitutional practices at different times. In 2025 it will be 50 years since it was replaced by the current Form of Government Act, which came into force on 1 January 1975. In many provisions, however, it refers to the aforementioned original.