This paper focuses studies on the national policy level of implementation of EE and ESD in education studied in Sweden 1990-2010. The article takes as its starting point a model developed over a number of research projects by Lindensjö & Lundgren, who developed and used the terms the arena of formulation and the arena of realisation. Wickenberg & Leo open the study by recounting what happened in the mid 1980s, and more importantly thoroughly examining the changes in the Education Act and curriculum in 1990, 1994 and 1998 as well as the more recent changes in these policy documents, which resulted in the new Education Act (2010:800) and new curricula and syllabi in the years 2010-2011. The changes in the law are interpreted in light of both inertia and path dependence. The authors have studied the effort, at a central, state level, put into the shaping of the education act, the curricula and the syllabi. The method used for both studies is classical legal method, as well as document analysis with its roots in social sciences. The studies are connected to the theoretical tradition known as "genetic sociology of law" supplemented with interviews with legislators.