Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, impeachment, also known as the Court of Impeachment (), is a judicial process with the power to convict Members of Parliament, Members of the Council of State, and Supreme Court Justices for criminal acts performed in line of duty. Impeachment is based on the

Constitution of Norway The 'Constitution of Norway'' (complete name: The Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway; Danish language, Danish: ; Norwegian language, Norwegian Bokmål: ; Nynorsk, Norwegian Nynorsk: ) was adopted on 16 May and signed on 17 May 1814 by the N ...

§§ 86 and 87. Parliament authorizes the impeachment process, which establishes a tribunal consisting of five members of the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

and six lay members appointed by the

Parliament of Norway The Storting ( ; ) 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 based on party-list proportional represe ...

. Impeachment has been used eight times, the last case being held in 1927.

Process

When adopted, the practice of impeachment in Norway was modeled off of

federal impeachment in the United States In the United States, federal impeachment is the process by which the House of Representatives charges the president, vice president, or another civil federal officer for alleged misconduct. The House can impeach an individual with a simp ...

. Similar to the United States, impeachment has two stages: a vote to impeach followed by a trial on whether to "convict" (remove). Prior to a 2007 constitution change, impeachment was started in the Odelsting chamber. Ten members of the ''Lagting'' chamber and five from the

then sat together as a court to render judgement, with members of the impeachment managers (prosecutors) coming from the Odelsting. A 2007 constitutional change made the parliament

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

(merging the two chambers), requiring the process of impeachment to also be changed. Under the change, the courts of impeachment now consist of eleven members, five from the supreme court and six lay members chosen by parliament for a period of six years. Current members of parliament are not eligible to serve, as they are presumed to have a conflict of interest in the matter. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is to lead the court of impeachment. Members of the parliament serve as managers (prosecutors), with prosecution administrated by a parliamentary committee (the ''Stortingets ansvarskommisjon''). These changes made impeachment a more viable threat to office holders should they breach their limitations.

History

Impeachment has been performed eight times in the history of the kingdom, and each time it has been aimed at members of the government. Six of the cases were in the period 1814–45. During the constitutional struggle in the last half of the 19th century, impeachment became vital following the case against Selmer's Cabinet in 1883 and 1884, concerning the

veto A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president (government title), president or monarch vetoes a bill (law), bill to stop it from becoming statutory law, law. In many countries, veto powe ...

rights of the

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

in matters of the constitution. Prior to this case, impeachment was the only way for parliament to dismiss a member of the cabinet; after 1884 Norway got a system of

parliamentarism A parliamentary system, or parliamentary democracy, is a form of government where the head of government (chief executive) derives their democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support ("confidence") of a majority of the legisl ...

, and parliament could dismiss a member of cabinet through a majority vote. After the constitutional battle of 1884 was over, there was only one case, where Prime Minister Abraham Berge and six members of his cabinet were found not guilty in 1927. Since then, impeachment has not been used, and is no longer considered part of the political game. Public commissions have since looked at reforming or removing impeachment, and transferring the institution to the ordinary courts. On 20 February 2007 the parliament voted to change the constitution such that the organization of impeachment becomes more potent, and changing the requirements, so the lay members of the court are not current members of parliament.

Cases

There have been eight cases of impeachment:

References

{{Courts of Norway Judiciary of Norway