Proportionalitet i utsökningsrätten - Europakonventionens krav vid utmätning av bostad

Sammanfattning: On the 25th of July 2013, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held Sweden responsible for violating Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the convention regarding a sale of the applicant’s home and ensuing eviction due to an en- forceable debt. This paper examines the relations between the Swedish debt enforcement and the ECHR, with the aim to investigate the requirements of the ECHR particularly in relation to seized homes. The paper also wishes to clarify whether Swedish debt enforcement satisfies said requirements or not. An interference with the rights of the ECHR needs to be proportionate in relation to its purpose, in the present case the ECtHR also attributed importance to other circumstances such as the size of the debt and the presence of effective procedural safeguards. Swedish enforcement law does not specifically protect the home as such, instead it is considered as any property with economic value. The Swedish supreme court’s practice does not involve the principle of proportionality when there are no other assets than the debtors home, which can be regarded as a problematic standpoint from an ECHR perspective. However, as shown inter alia by the new work routines of the Swedish Enforcement Agency, the findings of this paper show that the Swedish enforcement law is not in violation with the ECHR per se. Nevertheless, changing the enforcement law would clarify the legal position in this matter.