Samebyn, staten och kampen om legitimitet : En analys av framing i Talmamålet

Sammanfattning

Following the 2020 Girjas ruling by the Swedish Supreme Court, which granted a Sámi reindeer herding community exclusive rights to administer small game hunting and fishing on its grazing lands, several other reindeer herding communities have brought similar lawsuits against the Swedish state. This thesis examines the ongoing case T-335-22 at Gällivare District Court, in which Talma reindeer herding community sued the state in 2022. Drawing on social movement theory and frame analysis, the study analyses how the parties construct the conflict over land, rights, and knowledge; how they legitimize their claims; and what consequences these framings have for which forms of knowledge and rights claims are rendered legitimate in court. The results show that the litigation unfolds in two distinct phases, a historiographical phase and a legal interpretation phase, in which the reindeer herding community deploys an indigenous rights frame and a colonialhistorical frame, while the state employs a technical-legal frame and a multiethnic frame. Both parties draw on the same resources, notably the Girjas ruling and the Reindeer Land Committee (Renmarkskommittén), but mobilize them in contrasting expansive and restrictive ways. The findings suggest that post-Girjas litigation remains a contested arena not only over hunting and fishing rights, but also over which forms of historical knowledge, legal interpretation, and rights claims can be established as legitimate.