Rättsfaktiska

Rättsfaktiska is a term used in Swedish legal language describing facts or circumstances that have legal relevance or carry juridical consequences. The word is formed from rätt, meaning law or rights, and faktiska, meaning factual. In practice, rättsfaktiska omständigheter are facts that courts, authorities, or statutes treat as having significance for rights, duties, or legal outcomes, beyond merely describing what happened.

The concept is used to distinguish between mere descriptive facts and those that incur or influence legal effects. For example, while a set of events in a case may be factually true, only those that the law recognizes as triggering a duty, liability, or entitlement are considered rättsfaktiska. This distinction helps determine issues such as liability, contract validity, or the application of statutory rules. Rättsfaktiska omständigheter are often evaluated through evidence and argument in legal proceedings, but their status is defined by law and legal doctrine rather than by descriptive fact alone.

In Swedish legal practice, rättsfaktiska considerations appear in civil, criminal, and administrative contexts. They guide how a case is judged and which legal norms apply, and they may be contrasted with purely faktiska omständigheter that do not by themselves create or negate legal effects. The term can also appear in scholarly discussion about how facts attain juridical significance, or in statutory language that specifies what facts are legally relevant for a given rule.

See also: juridisk relevans, omständigheter, civilrätt, straffrätt.