The book addresses efforts to politically influence and curb the judicial system, by telling the story of the enactment of controversial laws in Norway in 1927. It draws parallels to current challenges to the autonomy of the legal order, both in countries where populist forces seek control over the courts, and in other countries where increasing levels of conflict, such as around the climate crisis and the pandemic, challenge the rule of law.

In 1927 the Norwegian Parliament enacted three laws that changes the rules of the game in the relation between Labor and Capital. The law was weaponized in benefit of the employers. By this, the legislature departed from the classic ideal of equality before the law and law's autonomy as a neutral order. The new laws were called the penitentiary laws.

The demonstrations against one of the laws, the Arbitration Act in 1928 were the largest manifestation of civil disobedience in Norwegian history. They provoked a level of lawlessness that has not been matched, with exception of the situation during the German occupation 1940-1945. The book analyses the events with the aid of the theory of civil disobedience in liberal democracies put forward by the philosopher John Rawls and the theory of the legal complex developed by the socio-legal scholars Terence Halliday, Lucien Karpic, and Malcolm Feeley.

This book tells the story of the Penitentiary Laws, how the laws came into being, how they were received and resisted, and how they were defeated through civil disobedience and with the support of a legal complex which reached far into the legal system. The outcome of the conflict may be one of the factors that explain the high level of trust that the legal institutions enjoy in present day Norway.

Auteur

Hans Petter Graver received the degree of cand. jur in 1980, and was awarded a Doctorate of Laws (dr. juris) in 1986 - both degrees from the University of Oslo. In 1993 he was appointed Professor in Sociology of law with an obligation to teach administrative law. He was director of the centre of European Studies (ARENA) 2001-2003 and Dean of the Law faculty 2008-2015. In 2012 he was visiting fellow at Heidelberg University and in 2016 he was visiting fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University. He has been member of the advisory council of the IAS.

Graver was president of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters 2019-2021. He was awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Helsinki in 2010, at the University of Heidelberg in 2017 at the University of Uppsala in 2020 and at the University of Bergen 2022. He is an honorary member of the Law Society of Finland and member of the Academia Europaea (2022).

Graver is the author of more than 20 books. Among these are Judges Against Justice On Judges when the Rule of Law is Under Attack (Springer 2015), Der Krieg der Richter Die deutsche Besatzung 1940-1945 und der norwegische Rechtsstaat (Nomos 2019) and Valiant Judges, Iniquitous Law Thirteen Stories of Heroes of the Law (Routledge 2024).