Torkel Halvorsen Aschehoug

Torkel Halvorsen Aschehoug (* June 27, 1822 in Idd (now Halden ); † January 20, 1909 in Kristiania ) was a Norwegian lawyer, social economist, historian and politician. He was the type of Professor politician of the time.

Family and Youth

His parents had: The pastor Halvor Thorkildsen Aschehoug (1786-1829) and his wife Anne Christine Darre ( 1799-1885 ). In his first marriage he married in 1849 his cousin Anne Catharine Marie Aschehoug ( 1822-1854 ), daughter of the pastor Johan Aschehoug ( 1795-1867 ), brother of Halvor Thorkildsen Aschehoug, and his wife Marthe Elisabeth Joy ( 1799-1863 ). His second wife he married in 1856 the sister of his first wife Johanne BOLETTE Aschehoug ( 1832-1904 ).

Aschehoug grew up in a pastor's family. Father and grandfather were pastors and also Stortingsabgeordnete. After his father's death he lived with his grandfather. In 1839 he passed the exam of Arts. He studied law at the University of Christiania in 1844 and cand jur. During his studies, he joined the intellectual circles Intelligensen to Anton Martin Schweigaard. Throughout his career, he was part of the academic and political elite.

The politician

He entered early into politics and belonged to the party Høyre. He was also for 20 years from 1847 to 1868 the central staff of the newspaper Morgenbladet. Like many intellectuals of his time he was a member of Det Skandinaviske selskap. As a senior member of the second Union Committee (1865-1867) he was involved as a supporter of Scandinavianism essential in the design of a new union treaty between Norway and Sweden. The design should Norway on the one hand ensure an equivalent position to Sweden within the Union, on the other hand, combine the economic and political ties close. But the draft was not accepted because the political public saw in a weakening of the Norwegian independence within the Union.

1868 Aschehoug deputy in the Storting. He participated in all meetings until 1882. His program was linked to the government's policy: reform policy under the Constitution. He worked closely with Frederik Stang. After Schweigaards death, many saw the right successor in him. But the expectations were realized. He showed in his Stortingsarbeit Although extensive knowledge, but did not have Schweigaards unquestioned authority.

University career

In 1852 he was a lecturer at the Faculty of Law. In 1862 he became a professor. After the death Schweigaards 1870 he also took over the economics and statistics. His legal focus was on public law. But he also dealt with inheritance law and tax law. From 1863 it was commonly associate judge of the Supreme Court. He won experience in business operations and in practice that court. Even as a lector read Aschehoug 1852 " Offentlige Fædrelandets Ret " ( Public law of the Fatherland ).

Scientific Work

At the age of 23 years Aschehoug gave his first book Indledning til norske out the Retsvidenskab. Here he was the first time an overview of the Norwegian legal system. It was important that he worked out the meaning of the Constitution to enact ordinary legislation and developed a doctrine of legal interpretation. He was also the first in the Norwegian legal theory, who presented the view of the German " Historical School " on the nature of law. The historical view of the law was determinative of his scientific work.

Until the mid-50s was the study of society and social policy in the center of Aschehougs interest. He wanted to make the economic theories for practical life fruitful, for example in the treatment of the relationship between state and the individual and of the poor problem. Moreover, he saw the foundation of law in natural law. Study Tours confirmed him in the conception of economics as an empirical science. Back in Norway, it dealt more with the economics and statistics. He became in 1850 a member of the Commission " Husmanns - being" and in 1853 the Commission for the poor beings in the country. His contribution consisted in large part to provide statistically reliable data for the legislation in these areas. He saw economic growth as a tool for solving social problems.

From 1873 he published in consecutive stapling his legal masterpiece, Norges nuværende Statsforfatning (Norway's current state constitution ). It subsequently appeared in three volumes ( 1875-1885 ). He was based on a pluralistic legal source doctrine: The Constitution was only the starting point for determining the applicable state law. It had to be supplemented from the history of the Constitution and the State and legal practice, with the Law had to be included with the constitutional problem solutions from other countries.

Aschehoug saw in an independent royal power and restricted suffrage and a central train the Norwegian Constitution. But in the 70s he realized that the parliamentary system and universal suffrage will come. Therefore, he suggested in the Storting before the introduction of a two-chamber system as a conservative warranty and limitation of a radically democratic form of government. But the Norwegian political reality did not permit such reforms. In culture and science policy, he was liberal and stood up for the freedom of research. He defended the Norwegian Darwinists and the full freedom of the seal.

His stance in the Storting shimmers in his interpretation of the Constitution by, so when he treated the conservative understanding of the distribution of power in the Constitution and this occurs for the absolute veto power of the king. A much debated question is to what extent it to check for doctrine on the law of the jurisdiction decisions of the Storting on their constitutionality, has contributed. After all, he has developed this doctrine in 1884 as a conservative counterweight to the loss of the royal veto. With this instrument, the conservative occupied Supreme Court was able to limit the effects of an unlimited democratic rule of the Storting.

At its economic and jurisprudential research latched seamlessly onto his historical works. He advocated for a positive evaluation of the time under Danish rule. This work was the beginning of a general reorientation of the Norwegian historical research in the 60s. He worked there empirically substantially and saw the science of history as an exploration of causal relationships in the development of an ever- advancing civilization. The material conditions in society for this development it were up early essential.

Its historic main work was Statsforfatningen i Norge og Danmark indtil 1814 ( The Constitution in Norway and Denmark until 1814 ), which appeared in 1866. The work contains not only the constitutional history, but also the social history. Nevertheless, he held the book for quite a scientific work. So he followed the German legal history school, which looked at the importance of legal history and context of society as a prerequisite for understanding the applicable law. He also established the authority of the state over the church and its limits legal history: The state had overseen since the Reformation, the Church, because he confers on the religious sentiments of the society collective expression, but he had the Lutheran Confessions themselves can not change under the absolutism, which is not different currents prevents. He was also the English economist Alfred Marshall and influenced by the German conservative reformists Adolph Wagner, the main architect of Bismarck's welfare state. In this influences the early Norwegian social legislation and the introduction of progressive taxation is due.

He held the stronger association of Denmark with Norway for 1537 needed to really govern Norway can. Although the Danish Norway policy had deficiencies, but they have brought in the long run the goods of civilization to Norway, where the generation of legal certainty has been her greatest achievement. He stood in sharp contrast to his contemporaries and colleagues Ernst Sars, which characterized it as a " 400 -year-old night," and other nationalists who build the Norwegian society of the old monarchy and the 400 -year history skip as a Danish province wanted.

From the mid 80s until his death was the social economy at the center of his interest. Already in 1877 a separate department was set up for this was that he took over in 1886. Already in 1883 was on his initiative a Statsøkonomisk forening ( National Association ) founded whose chairman he was until 1903.

1887 was the Statsøkonomisk Tidsskrift ( Journal of Economics ), where he published 15 great articles. After 1900 his main work social economic Socialøkonomik appeared. It treated in three volumes ( the third volume in two half volumes, 1903-1908 ), the economy of human society. This analysis of social institutions and economic theories are presented. The historical view is centrally located and is incorporated into the representations partly as a theory of history, partly as economic history, partly as the event history. He knew about the latest theories about it, and was involved in the introduction of the theory of marginal utility by the Austrian School in the Norwegian professional discussion, which was first made ​​by the thesis by Oskar Jæger about Adam Smith in 1892, where the marginal utility theory was described in Norway known.

Aschehoug was admitted to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1890 and received in 1895 the St. Olav Medal ( Grand Cross ). Lund University awarded him in 1868, from the Albertus University of Königsberg in 1892 with an honorary doctorate. In 1908 he was awarded Norway's highest civilian honor, the Borgerdådsmedaille in gold. According to him, the professor was named Aschehougs plass in Oslo.

Works

• Indledning til norske the Retsvidenskab. (Introduction to the Norwegian law ) in 1845.
• Norges Offentlige Ret. Første afdeling. Statsforfatningen i Norge og Danmark indtil 1814. ( Norwegian Public Law. Division One. Constitution of Norway and Denmark until 1814 ). 1866
• Om Unionskomiteens Udkast til en Foreningsakt. ( The draft Union Committee for Unification Treaty ). 1870
• Norges Offentlige Ret. Andes afdeling. Norges nuværende Statsforfatning ( Norway Public Law Second Division Norway present constitution. . ) (3 volumes from 1874 to 1885; . 2nd Edition 1891-1893 )
• Nordisk retsencyklopædi (Norway's legal encyclopedia ) (together with KJ Berg and AF Warrior). 5 volumes, Copenhagen from 1885 to 1899; in Volume 1 (1885 ): " The Nordiske Statsret " ( the Scandinavian state law)
• Statistiske Studier over Folkemænge above Jordbrug i Norges country Distrikter i det syttende above attende Aarhundrede ( Statistical studies on population and agriculture in Norway's rural counties in the 17th and 18th centuries ). 1890
• De norske Communers Retsforfatning før 1837. ( The legal constitution of the Norwegian municipalities before 1837). 1897
• Socialøkonomik. En videnskabelig fremstilling af det menneskelige Samfunds økonomiske virksomhed. ( Sozialökonomie. A scientific presentation of the economic conditions of human society ) 3 volumes in 4 books from 1903 to 1908 (2nd edition of Volume 3: 1910)

Comments

The article is mainly based on the " Norsk biografisk leksikon ". Any other information is reported separately.