Member Article

On Wednesday 18 March 2020, the Norwegian Government put forward a bill which will give the Government vast authorization to fight Covid-19 and its consequences for the society. Today, 21 March 2020, a more narrow Corona act was adopted by the Norwegian Parliament.

Read more about the initial proposal. 

After the initial critical voices, the Parliament chose to initiate a speedily hearing, where it invited i.a. the Norwegian Bar Association, the Norwegian Association of Judges, National Institution for Human Rights  and prominent scholars to present their views. Their submissions were made the following day (Friday). The Bar Association – although recognizing the urgency and special cirucmstances, expressed worries whether the very wide powers in the bill would be compliant with the Constitution. Their submission may be read here (Norwegian only). 

Today, 21 March 2020, the special parliamentary committee for handling of Covid-19 related matters, have reached a conclusion. The act will be significantly narrowed compared to the original bill from the Government. The most significant changes being:

• The law should only be used when the ordinary process cannot be used.
• It is listed which laws may be relevant to change, the authorization is no longer general.
• The duration is cut from six to one month.
• Judicial control has been expanded
  
  

Simonsen Vogt Wiig follows the development of Covid-19 closely. We have established cross-functional task forces available at all times across all our offices.

On this page we have collected all our updates on the Covid-19 outbreak.