Therese Bäckman
About Therese Bäckman
I am Doctor of Laws in public law and my research includes studies of the adverse legal effect of favorable decisions for the individual - for people with disabilities in the areas of SoL (the Swedish Social Security Act) and LSS (the Swedish Act concerning Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments).
Each year, a large number of favorable decisions on activities under SoL and LSS are being made for people with disabilities. It concerns, for example, contributions from the municipalities for housing or assistance in the form of health care or special housing. The legal principle of the adverse legal effect of negative decision (res judicator) is a general principle in Swedish administrative law which means that a favorable decision under LSS or SoL can not be changed with a negative effect on the individual nor be withdrawn. From the time that the individual has been informed of the decision he/she can feel safe and have a legal safeguard of how and in what way that the decision will be carried out in practice. Put another way, the individual can feel secure that his/her decision on social/medical assistance, assisted living or residential care can not be changed or withdrawn.
In conjunction with the local management and the decision-making of the municipalities on interventions for people with disabilities according to SoL and LSS questions can be raised around the individual's legal rights and around rule of law.
In my dissertation I investigate whether people with disabilities are ensured rule of law through the principle of the adverse legal effect of favorable decisions in the legal areas of SoL and LSS. The study shows that the principle of the adverse legal effect of favorable decisions may be considered as an important legal safeguard, from a theoretical perspective. However, in the actual application of the law, the study shows that the municipalities often act actively in order to derogate from the principle and to bypass it. In practice, the individual can not feel secure that the decisions that he/she has been granted will remain valid and continue. This means, in relation to previous research on the legal and practical problems for people with disabilities, that the image of the legal problems arising in connection with the application of SoL and LSS must be complemented with the problem that the principle of the adverse legal effect of favorable decisions is not implemented or applied in practice and thus does not act as a legal safeguard for the individual in practice.
My research has been partly funded by Vårdalinstitutet, a collaboration between the University of Lund and Gothenburg. Vårdalinstitutet is a national institute for research and development in the health care field, in close collaboration between the universities and the national heads of health care in Sweden.
I was appointed by the Swedish government as secretary of SOU 2014: 91, a commissioned report on the investigation of the age limit for approval of a change of gender; (Legal sex and medical sex), Report on the Inquiry on the Approval of a Change of Gender, SOU 2014: 91, Stockholm 2014)
My teaching includes the subject of Public Law at the Law Program and the subject of Social Law at the Program in Social Work, at the University of Gothenburg.
On other web sites
Research areas
- Public Law, Administrative Law, Social Law, Social security Law
Teaching areas
- Public Law, Administrative Law, Social Law, Social Services
Selected publications
Socialtjänstens ansvar för personer med funktionsnedsättning
Bäckman, Therese
Elisabeth Eneroth (red.), Juridik för socialt arbete, 2:a upplagan, Malmö : Gleerups Utbildning AB, s. 211-240, 2014
Gynnande besluts negativa rättskraft och rättssäkerhet – för människor med funktionsnedsättning inom rättsområdena SoL och LSS
Bäckman, Therese
Negativ rättskraft i den nya förvaltningslagen - ökad trygghet för personer med funktionsnedsättning
Bäckman, Therese
Förvaltningsrättslig tidskrift, FT 2018 3, 2018
Förändringar i rätten till personlig assistans - en fråga om rättsäkerhet och välfärdsstatens gränser
Bäckman, Therese
i Erhag, T., Levinder, P. & Lind, A-S. (Red.) (2018). Socialrätt under omvandling - om solidaritetens och välfärdsstatens gränser, Liber, s. 320-342, 2018
Juridiskt kön och medicinsk könskorrigering (SOU 2014:91)
Bäckman, Therese
The rights of the elderly in Sweden.
Bäckman, Therese
World Human Rights Cities Forum 2017, Gwangju South Korea, 2017