| Summary: |
In 2014, the Norwegian Constitution has existed for two hundred years. Adopted
on 17 May 1814, it is the oldest functioning constitution in Europe. Only
the US Constitution (adopted in 1787) is older. The beginnings of the Norwegian
Constitution, as well as its longevity, have been accompanied by dramatic
events, including the breakup of the long-lasting union with Denmark in early
1814, war with Sweden (summer 1814), union with Sweden (1814–1905),
German occupation (1940–1945), and two referenda on Norway’s place in European
cooperation structures (1972 and 1994). All these events have been
topics of comprehensive research and will indisputably continue to be so.
This volume’s authors, however, take a different approach. Rather than focusing
on events, they focus on practices connected with putting the Constitution
into text, with setting down in a document the rules of government and
human rights, and with interpreting that document. These practices may lack
palpable outward dramatics because they most often take place in forums—
conference rooms, meeting rooms, studies—where the drama of conflicting
interests occurs not as physically tangible fights but in represented shape only:
as words, sentences, and paragraphs. The lack of outward drama is also caused
by the fact that textual practices often concern political decisions on a micro
level (Chilton 2004: 4). Such practices have the character of everyday, often
meticulous, work. Nonetheless, these easily overlooked practices, and not least
the sum of many such practices, may have consequences as significant as actions
unfolding on real battlefields. In many ways, these textual practices lie
at the heart of a well-functioning democracy. It is the shared recognition of
textual practices’ significance that sparked this volume’s authors to scrutinize
practices that relate to the Norwegian Constitution as a text.
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