[diggan]

Nämndemän (Lay Judges) are nothing like juries, at least how I understand juries. In lower courts (tingsrätt), those people are appointed by the city council, and the people chosen are often politically involved (yet the appointment is "unpolitical"), they're not just "randoms" who got called to be in the jury, like how I understand the juries in the US to work.

[Y-bar]

The randomness of selection is the only difference of any significance. Lay judges and juries have the same amount of judicial power and knowledge.

Edit: it has been pointed out to me that lay judges have even more powers such as interpretation of law than juries, which seems dangerous.