From the Citizen’s Charter to Public Service Guarantees – the Swedish Model

Under the influence of the Citizenʼs Charter used in the United Kingdom many countries in Europe have started using different types of service agreements in order to improve the quality of public services. In Sweden these agreements usually are called Public Service Guarantees. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to some legal issues that might arise as a result of the use of a typical private law instrument – Guarantees – when offering public services, i.e. the application of private-law principles to a service that the municipality is duty bound to offer the citizens (or public service customers) under public law.