Malmö District Court () is a law court in

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

whose jurisdiction includes the municipalities of Burlöv, Malmö and

Vellinge Vellinge is a locality and the seat of Vellinge Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to ...

. Malmö District Court comes under the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

for

Scania Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous w ...

and

Blekinge Blekinge () is one of the traditional Swedish provinces (), situated in the southern coast of the geographic region of Götaland, in southern Sweden. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea. It is the country's second-smallest provin ...

. Malmö District Court is also the court for freedom of the press and freedom of expression cases for Skåne County, the enforcement court for the area corresponding to the former Malmöhus County and the maritime court with jurisdiction established in the Maritime Act. The court is one of the largest district courts in the country and decides around 15 000 cases each year. The District Court was attached to, and had parts of its activities in until 22 June 2023. On 26 June 2023, the District Court moved to a newly constructed court building at Bangårdsplatsen 2. The building is shared with the

Administrative court An administrative court is a type of specialized court on administrative law, particularly disputes concerning the exercise of public power. Their role is to ascertain that official acts are consistent with the law. Such courts are usually co ...

of Malmö and the Rent and Lease Tribunal of Malmö. The District Court's jurisdiction has 420 000 inhabitants.

Administrative history

At the district court reform in 1971, this district court in Malmö was formed from the

assize court The assizes (), or courts of assize, were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ...

s of

Oxie Oxie () is a locality and was a city district () in the south-east of Malmö Municipality, Sweden. On 1 July 2013, the city district was merged with Fosie, forming Söder. In 2012, Oxie had a population of 12,453 of the municipality's 307,758. ...

and Skytt's hundreds'

tithing A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or ...

and the Malmö

city court A city court or municipal court is a court of law with jurisdiction limited to a city or other municipality. It typically addresses "violations of city ordinances and may also have jurisdiction over minor criminal cases...and over certain civil cas ...

, where the Malmö assize court premises, dating from 1970, were taken over by the new court. The jurisdiction was formed from parts of the district courts of Oxie and Skytts' hundred's tithing, Torna and Bara judicial district's tithing and the jurisdiction of Malmö city court. From 1971, the areas of Malmö municipality,

Lomma Municipality Lomma Municipality () is a municipality in Skåne County in southern Sweden, about 10 km north of Malmö. Its seat is located in Lomma with secondary locality Bjärred being of almost equal population size. The present municipality was crea ...

and

Burlöv Municipality Burlöv Municipality (; ) is a municipality in Skåne County in South Sweden in southern Sweden, just north of Malmö. Its seat is located in Arlöv, a community which for geographical and statistical purposes is seen as a part of Malmö (''Malm ...

were included. In addition, Bara municipality until it was dissolved at the turn of the year 1976/1977, when the area was transferred to

Svedala Municipality Svedala Municipality () is a municipality in Skåne County in southern Sweden, just southeast of Malmö. Its seat is located in the town of Svedala. The present municipality is the result of a series of amalgamations, carried out in 1952, 1967 ...

and

Trelleborg Trelleborg () is a town in Skåne County, Sweden, with 43,359 inhabitants as of 31 December 2015. It is the southernmost town in Sweden located some west from the Smygehuk, southernmost point of Sweden and the Scandinavian Peninsula. It is one ...

's judicial district. On December 12, 2005, Lomma municipality was removed from the jurisdiction, which was then transferred to

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

jurisdiction. At the same time, the jurisdiction was extended to include

Vellinge Municipality Vellinge Municipality () is a municipality in Skåne County in southern Sweden. Its seat is located in Vellinge. The present municipality is a result of the latest local government reform in Sweden. In 1974 the municipalities of '' Räng'', '' V ...

, which was transferred from the then dissolved Trelleborgs judicial district. Until April 30, 2011, Malmö District Court was the property court for

Skåne County Skåne County ( ), sometimes referred to as Scania County or just Scania in English, is the southernmost Counties of Sweden, county, or , of Sweden, mostly corresponding to the traditional Provinces of Sweden, province of Scania. It borders th ...

. The Property Court ceased operations on May 1, 2011, when it was transferred to the Land and Environment Court at Växjö District Court.

Activities

Malmö District Court has around 150 employees, divided into four divisions, a service office, administration and security staff. Three departments deal with

criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

and

civil case A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. T ...

s. In addition to these, there is a special criminal division that deals with more extensive criminal cases. An investigation by the

Swedish National Courts Administration The Swedish National Courts Administration (SNCA) () is a Swedish administrative authority organized under the Ministry of Justice for administration of courts. It functions as a service organisation for the Swedish courts, including the gener ...

in 2012 found that Malmö District Court was one of the six courts in the country that needed increased security checks following an increase in violence, threats and seized weapons on the premises. The court has since introduced permanent

access control In physical security and information security, access control (AC) is the action of deciding whether a subject should be granted or denied access to an object (for example, a place or a resource). The act of ''accessing'' may mean consuming ...

s similar to those at airports. The district court also has premises in the legal center built next to the police station on Porslinsgatan in Malmö. This includes the district court's large security room where witnesses and

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the ...

s do not have to meet the

defendant In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case. Terminology varies from one juris ...

or his relatives in public areas and where escape attempts are greatly hampered. The Malmö legal center, together with a facility in Stockholm, has the highest level of security in the country.

The Building

Malmö's new court is not only the largest court in the Nordic region, but also one of Sweden's largest and most complex office interiors with a total of . The building has 14 floors and some 40 courtrooms with associated public areas, office areas with about 700 workplaces, meeting rooms and dining rooms. It was designed by White Arkitekter and completed in 2023.

Attack

On the morning of 3 February 2014, an explosive device was detonated at the entrance to the detention and security rooms of the District Court at the Justice Center. No one was injured and operations continued as usual despite the attack. Material damage was limited to a broken security glass and its frame. In November 2014, the same entrance was destroyed in a blast attack. The blast also shattered a large number of windows in surrounding buildings.

Gallery

File:Domstolsbyggnad, Malmö, 01082024.jpg, South facade File:Malmö tingsrätt10.jpg, North facade File:Malmö tingsrätt 2023-1.png, Entrance

References

External links

Official site
{{Malmö Courts in Sweden Buildings and structures in Malmö Government buildings in Sweden Postmodern architecture Government buildings completed in 2023 White Arkitekter buildings