Astri Aas-Hansen (born 16 December 1970) is a Norwegian lawyer and politician for the Labour Party. She has served as the minister of justice since February 2025.

Political career

From 1995 to 2002 she worked as an advisor for the Labour Party. In 2005, when

Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet was the Government of Norway from 17 October 2005 to 16 October 2013. It was a coalition government, coalition between the Labour Party (Norway), Labour Party, the Socialist Left Party (Norway), Socialist Left Party a ...

assumed office, she was appointed a political adviser in the

Ministry of Justice and the Police The Royal Ministry of Justice and Public Security () is a Norwegian government ministry that oversees justice, the police, and domestic intelligence. The main purpose of the ministry is to provide for the maintenance and development of the basic ...

. She was promoted to State Secretary in February 2007, and remained there until April 2013. She joined the

Norwegian Parliamentary Intelligence Oversight Committee '' The Parliament Appointed Committee for Intelligence Oversight Committee (), commonly known as the EOS Committee () is Norway's body responsible for overseeing public intelligence, surveillance and security services. The body has seven members an ...

in 2019 and served as its deputy leader from 2019 to 2021, when she took over as leader.

Minister of Justice

Following the Centre Party's withdrawal from government, she was appointed minister of justice and public security on 4 February 2025.

Tenure

Upon becoming justice minister, she expressed skepticism and doubt about her predecessor's proposal of allowing the police to search people without cause. She announced in early March that the government would be aiming to propose a sexual consent law by Easter, fulfilling an objective made in the government's platform. The proposal did however face some criticism by defence attorney Mette Yvonne Larsen, who argued that the law would contribute to issues with evidence and potentially compromising the security of the judicial system.

Civic career

From 2002 to 2017, she worked as a lawyer. She has also given lectures at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

and

Nesna University College Nesna University College ( or ) was a university college, a Norwegian state institution of higher education, until it became part of Nord University in 2016. Its campus was in the village of Nesna in Nesna Municipality. In April 2019, the unive ...

. Following her stint in Stoltenberg's second government, she returned to her former job in Advokatfirmaet Elden. In 2017, she became a district court judge at the

Oslo District Court Oslo District Court () is a district court located in Oslo, Norway. This court is based at the Oslo Courthouse in the city of Oslo. The court serves the entire city of Oslo and the court is subordinate to the Borgarting Court of Appeal. As the ...

Personal life

She hails from

Lillesand Lillesand () is municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sørlandet. The administrative center of the municipality is the town of Lillesand. Some of the larger villages in Lillesand municipality include ...

, and graduated from the

with the

cand.jur. Candidate ( or ) is the name of various academic degrees, which are today mainly awarded in Scandinavia. The degree title was phased out in much of Europe through the 1999 Bologna Process, which has re-formatted academic degrees in Europe. The de ...

degree in 1999.

References

1970 births Living people People from Lillesand University of Oslo alumni Labour Party (Norway) politicians Norwegian state secretaries Norwegian women state secretaries 21st-century Norwegian politicians 21st-century Norwegian women politicians 20th-century Norwegian lawyers 21st-century Norwegian lawyers 20th-century Norwegian women lawyers 21st-century Norwegian women lawyers 20th-century Norwegian women {{Norway-politician-1970s-stub