Popular Sovereignty – Rather Pure

203 years ago today, the Norwegian Constitutional Convention passed the constitutional provision on constitutional amendments.

This provision was to be subject to much political conflict later in the 19^th century. It was argued that a constitutional amendment implicitly needed Royal Assent, and it can certainly be argued that that was part of constitutional law at times.

However, a doctoral thesis from 2011 has unfortunately shown convincingly and with high probability that the intent of the framers was a pure popular sovereignty system when it comes to the constituting (amendments included) authority.

This painting, created by Oscar Wergeland on assignment from a medical doctor on the losing side in the constitutional conflict of the 1870s and 1880s, hangs till this day in Parliament Hall: