Implementation of Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Norway

The right to self-determination is a fundamental and universal human right in Norwegian and international law, with historical roots that trace all the way back to King Christian V’s Norwegian Law of 1687. Under Norwegian law, the general rule is that all people over the age of 18 have a legal capacity to act pursuant to § 2 (1) (a) of the Guardianship Act, unless they are completely or partially deprived of this capacity in compliance with other provisions of the act. There are two different circumstances that may authorise such deprivation: age, and mental illness. The fundamental starting point is that Norway is a dualistic state, meaning that international law and Norwegian law are two different legal systems. International law must be made a part of Norwegian law for it to be directly applied in Norwegian courts.