POLITICAL CONSTITUTION AND
ADMINISTRATION
The Norwegian constitution is founded on the law of May 17th,
1814 (see appendix), The extraordinary Storthing, which met
in the autumn of 1814, modified this «fundamental» law, and the
revised constitution is dated November 4th, 1814.
Besides this law it is necessary to mention as sources of the
constitutional law in Norway the Act of Union of August 6th, 1815,
called «Bigsakten» (the Act of the Bealm); the Swedish law of
the succession to the throne, formally acknowledged in § 6 of the
fundamental law of Norway; the act of July 18th, 1815 (on the
coming of age of- the king when completing his 18th year); the
act of September 18th, 1815 (on the regulations for the High
Court of the Bealm); the act of July 7th, 1828 (on constitutional
responsibility); the acts of April 21st, 1888 and of July 27th 1896
(on acquisition and loss of citizenship in Norway); the act of July
21st, 1894 (on the religious confession of the functionaries of the
State); and finally the election acts of June 24th, 1828, July 1st,
1884, July 23rd, 1894, and June 5th, 1897.
According to § 112 of the fundamental law the bills purporting
to modify the constitution or to make additions to it are
subject to the following procedure: These bills, which can only’ be
voted in their integrity and without amendments, must be brought
in in the first session of a newly elected Storthing either by the
government or by a member of the Storthing.
The president gives the Storthing due notice of the bills, which are
then published in the official journal without being subject to any vote.
The -bills must be discussed and voted in one of the sessions
of the following period, that is, after a new election. For the
bill to become law, a majority of two thirds of the Storthing in
pleno is necessary.
._ The fundamental law being silent in this respect, there are
diverging opinions upon the question whether the king’s sanction
is necessary for the constitutional laws; the laws that have been
passed, have all been sanctioned by the' king,
§ 112 of the fundamental law provides that modifications must
never be introduced contrary to the principles and spirit of the
^ constitution.
Norway is, according to the constitution, a free and independent
kingdom, united with Sweden. The form of the government
is Constitutional.
In the titles of the—fundamental law is found the doctrinal
tripartition of the sovereignty of the people, the executive power
(§ 3 and foil.), the legislative power (§ 49 and foil.), and the judicial
power (§ 86 and foil.). On a closer examination of the context,
where the law fixes the attributes' of the king (the government)
and those of the parliament, the functions of the legislature and
those of the executive power are found to be far from clearly defined
; and in the chapter on the judicial power, many things are
omitted which might have been provided for there. The fundamental
law only organises the High Court of the Bealm (Eigsret, see
page 183), and gives,- besides, the principal features of the organisation
of the Supreme Court (Hqiesteret), and defines its jurisdiction,
by which it is placed above all the other civil or military
courts; but nothing is mentioned about the organisation of the
latter, or who is to organise them. Among the general dispositions
there are soine which in certain respects establish the independence
of the tribunals e. g. § 96, that no one can be condemned but
according to a law, nor punished except by the sentence of a tribunal.
But the relations of the tribunals to the executive power
*) There are authors and' politicians who assert th a t the king has no veto
on the laws modifying the constitution; others;-accord him a'suspensory veto,
and others again declare th a t the royal Veto is absolute on these laws. After
the events leading to the condemnation of ,the ministers in 1884 (see History
page 155) and after the promulgation of the law admitting ministers to parliament,
the dissension about the veto on constitutional laws has been reduced to
a merely theoretical difference of opinion.