Norwegian Code
The Norwegian Code (Template:Lang-no, abbreviated NL) is the oldest part of the Norwegian law still in force. It was given by Christian V of (Denmark and) Norway on 15 April 1687 and entered into force on 29 September 1688, as the legal code for the Kingdom of Norway including its dependencies (the Faroe Island, Iceland, and Greenland). Norway was a nominally sovereign kingdom, but politically (although not economically) the weaker part in a personal union with Denmark at the time. The Norwegian Code was largely based on the Danish Code (Danske Lov, DL), itself mostly based on older Danish laws, but with some differences for example the areas of inheritance law, agricultural law, law relating to hunting, fisheries and trade, and military issues.[1] Significant parts of it remained in force in Norway well into the 20th century, but much of the code has since been repealed and replaced by modern laws. The code as such remains in force, and it was last amended on 1 January 1993. As late as the postwar era, the Supreme Courts of Denmark and Norway interestingly interpreted identical provisions from the Danish and Norwegian Code respectively; they came to the opposite conclusions regarding the meaning of identical provisions NL 6-10-2 (in force in Norway until 1985) and DL 6-10-2 (still in force in Denmark), which regulates compensation for damage cause by livestock. The Supreme Court of Norway ruled on the meaning of this provision in 1954.[2][3]
Norway's new Criminal Code entered into force in 1842, but crimes committed before that year were punished under the Norwegian Code. The Norwegian Code was last applied in a criminal case in August 1862, when 80 year old Lorentse Thomasdatter Vaagen admitted to having robbed and killed her friend Gunnil Heggelund in Trondhjem in 1827. She was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and she died in the same year.[4]
Parts of the Norwegian Code also remain in effect in the former Norwegian dependencies Iceland and the Faroe Islands, which became part of Denmark with the dissolution of the Dano-Norwegian union in 1814 (Iceland has since become sovereign).
Background
It is also referred to as Christian V's Norwegian Code, to distinguish it from its predecessor, Christian IV's Norwegian Code, in force from 1604 to 1688. Christian IV's Norwegian Code was largely a translation into Danish of Magnus VI's Norwegian Code, promulgated in 1274 as a unified code of laws to apply for the whole country, including the Faroe Islands and Shetland, and replacing earlier regional laws.
References
External links
- Christian V's Norwegian Code, in its original form
- Christian V's Norwegian Code, the parts that are still in force