Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Page 390

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LE NORD
the time necessary to elaborate new
proposals to improve the present
system of elections that the Stor-
ting was not dissolved.
On the 22nd of June another
quite important proposed amend-
ment was rejected, 91 voting for
and 49 against. The age limit for
obtaining suffrage in Norway is 23
years. A number of times the Lab-
our Party has proposed to go down
to 21 years. The last time such a
proposal was discussed (in 1936),
66 members voted for the amend-
ment, 64 against. At that time only
Labour members voted for; this
year the whole Radical Party, 4
members of the Farmers’ Party, 2
of the Christian People’s Party and
1 wild voted with the Labour
Party.
One amendment to the Constitu-
tion, touching the composition of
the Supreme Court of Norway, was
passed in the month of June, 111
members voting for, 22 against.
Until now it has been laid down
in the Constitution that the Su-
preme Court shall have not less
than 7 members. After the amend-
ment it will be sufficient to have
not less than 5 members.
It was considered a purely prac-
tical question; and the amendment
had been advocated by the Depart-
ment of Justice, by the Bar Asso-
ciation, by the organisation of
judges and by the Supreme Court
itself.
Among other amendments that
were rejected might be mentioned
a proposed revision of article 22 in
the Constitution which declares
that no civil servant can be dis-
missed without being sentenced by
an ordinary court of justice, nor
can he be transferred or removed
against his will.
The present Government had
proposed to amend the text so that
it should read as follows: “Any
civil servant — judges excepted —
can be dismissed, under conditions
set out in law, if his post be abolish-
ed. Whether it shall be admissible
to transfer or remove civil servants
against their will — or not, shall be
decided by law. No judge should
be removed against his will.”
The amendment was unanimous-
ly rejected by the Storting. Under
present world conditions it was
found to be a danger to democratic
ideas of government to open any
loophole for arbitrary decisions and
make permanent civil servants li-
able to become personally depen-
dant on political parties.
The new railroad Oslo—Kristian-
sand was opened by the King on
21st of June. The distance is not
more than 365 km., but the diffi-
culties of construction have been
very considerable and the number
of tunnels very high. It is the first
railway-line to connect the South
of Norway with the national trunk
lines; and the event was felt to be
one of real importance. The line
from Kristiansand further west and