Helge Klæstad

Helge Klæstad (December 6, 1885 in Levanger, † May 23, 1965 in Oslo) was a Norwegian lawyer. In the 1920s he worked as a referee in several international disputes. From 1931 to 1946 he served as Justice of the Supreme Court of Norway, and from 1946 to 1961 at the International Court in The Hague, including from 1958 to the end of his term as president of the court.

Life

Helge Klæstad was born in 1881 in Levanger and completed after his graduation in the year 1903 to 1908 to study law at the University of Oslo, where he also received his doctorate in 1920. After his studies he worked first as an administrative lawyer in Fosen and from 1910 to 1912 in Trondheim, before joining the Justice Department and later in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

From 1920 he was a delegate of his native country at various international conferences and bilateral negotiations and in the field of international arbitration, in which he made his mark as a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration as an arbitrator in disputes between state and from 1929. He was 1919-1926 arbitrator between Germany and the British Empire for arbitration questions on the Treaty of Versailles, and in 1925 president of the English- German Arbitration Court in London, 1927-1931 arbitrator between Austria and the British Empire and from 1929 to 1931 Referees between Hungary and the British Empire. In 1930 he became a member of the Permanent Conciliation and Arbitration Commission between Norway and Poland, and in 1931 a judge in an arbitration between Germany and Luxembourg.

In 1931 he became a judge of the Supreme Court of Norway, where he worked until 1946. In the same year he was elected for a term of six years as a judge at the newly established International Criminal Court in The Hague. In his re-election in 1952 for another nine years he sat in the decisive round of voting against the Belgian candidate Charles de Visscher by, who also belonged to the court since 1946. From 1958 until the end of his term in 1961 Helge Klæstad stood the Court as president. During his work at the International Court of Justice Helge Klæstad wrote three separate Opinions (deviating from the Court majority opinions ), five dissenting votes and two explanations.

Helge Klæstad died in 1965 in Oslo.