The Swedish government requested the Swedish Gender Equality Agency to conduct an inquiry into the district court verdicts concerning custody to look for how children’s rights are treated in cases where there is a history of domestic violence. Sweden continues to struggle to fulfil their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child in these cases. This thesis approaches the topic by applying Kaarlo Tuoris critical legal positivism as the theoretical basis to explain the reasons behind these shortcomings. It is suggested that the majority of these shortcomings relate to the so-called process of sedimentation which allows for the normative elements of the, in terminology of Tuori, surface level of law to be internalized into the legal culture and the deep structure of law.