handlingar

Handlingar is a Swedish noun in plural form meaning documents, papers, files, or records, especially those produced by authorities, organizations, or individuals. The singular form is en handling, which refers to a single document or item to be handled. The term is common in administrative, legal, and archival contexts.

In legal proceedings, handlingar refers to the papers filed in a case, such as decisions, correspondence, contracts, witness statements, and court orders. In public administration, it covers records generated by agencies. In business contexts, the word encompasses invoices, contracts, receipts, and reports. In everyday speech, handlingar can denote any set of papers that someone carries or organizes.

Public access is a central aspect of handlingar in Sweden through the principle of offentlighetsprincipen, which generally allows inspection of official documents by the public, with exemptions for privacy and security. This framework influences how handlingar are created, stored, and disclosed in government and court settings.

In the digital era, many handlingar are scanned and stored as electronic documents. The term is often used alongside dokument to refer to both physical papers and digital files; some contexts prefer dokument for modern, strictly digital items, while handlingar remains common in archival and legal language.

See also: dokument, offentlighetsprincipen, arkiv, journal, protokoll.