Law in Norway follows a civil law system. The

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

is the highest in the nation, with 20 justices.

Overview

The highest level of law is the Constitution of 17 May 1814. Statutes made under the Constitution are subordinate to it. Regulations made under such a statute are subordinate to such law. The first state-issued national Law-Code for Norway was

Magnus Lagabøtes landslov ''Magnus Lagabötes landslov'' ("Magnus Lagabøte's State Law") was a law covering the whole of Norway, issued by King Magnus VI of Norway between 1274 and 1276. The law was the first to apply to Norway as a whole and is one of the first examples ...

(or the 'Code of the Norwegian Realm'), issued in 1274 by

Magnus VI of Norway Magnus Haakonsson ( non, Magnús Hákonarson, no, Magnus Håkonsson, label= Modern Norwegian; 1 (or 3) May 1238 – 9 May 1280) was King of Norway (as Magnus VI) from 1263 to 1280 (junior king from 1257). One of his greatest achievements was the ...

. It was followed in 1276 by the '' Magnus Lagabøtes bylov'', issued by the same king. The

Constitution of Norway nb, Kongeriket Norges Grunnlov nn, Kongeriket Noregs Grunnlov , jurisdiction = Kingdom of Norway , date_created =10 April - 16 May 1814 , date_ratified =16 May 1814 , system =Constitutional monarchy , ...

was adopted on 16 May 1814 by the

Norwegian Constituent Assembly The Norwegian Constituent Assembly (in Norwegian ''Grunnlovsforsamlingen'', also known as ''Riksforsamlingen'') is the name given to the 1814 constitutional assembly at Eidsvoll in Norway, that adopted the Norwegian Constitution and formalised t ...

Eidsvoll Eidsvoll (; sometimes written as ''Eidsvold'') is a municipality in Akershus in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the Romerike traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sundet. General information ...

. Norwegian law, as well as the other Scandinavian legal systems, differ from their civil law continental counterparts by assigning a very high value on jurisprudence. Especially in

private law Private law is that part of a civil law legal system which is part of the '' jus commune'' that involves relationships between individuals, such as the law of contracts and torts (as it is called in the common law), and the law of obligations ...

, large parts of legal development are left to the Supreme Court. As an example, areas such ordinary contract law are scarcely legislated by the

Storting The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years ...

. Norwegian law, unlike many other civil law systems, are not not codified in systematic codes. Although an attempt at codification was in the works from 1953 to 1999, the project was subsequently disbanded.

References

Sources

*Bertnes, Pål A. In Winterton and Moys (eds). ''

Information Sources in Law ''Information Sources in Law'' is a book. First Edition The first edition was edited by R G Logan and published by Butterworths in 1986. It is part of the series which was then known as Butterworths Guides to Information Sources. It consists of tw ...

''. Second Edition. Bowker-Saur. 1997. Chapter 20: Norway. Pages 341–361.

External links

Guide to Law Online - Norway
from the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

. {{Law in Europe Law of Norway

Overview

See also

References

Sources

External links