Career

He was born in Frol

Frol

Frol is a former municipality in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is the area surrounding the town of Levanger located in the present-day municipality of Levanger.-History:...

, studied under Anders Bratholm

Anders Bratholm

Anders Bratholm was a Norwegian jurist.Born in Oslo, he took the doctorate degree in 1958 and was a professor of jurisprudence at the University of Oslo from 1960 to 1990. He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters...

 and graduated from the University of Oslo

University of Oslo

The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...

 with the cand.jur. degree in 1970. He was a research fellow from 1972 to 1978, and took the dr.juris degree in 1978. He has been a professor at the University of Oslo

University of Oslo

The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...

 since 1978. He was a guest scholar at Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

 from 1995 to 1996. As of his sixtieth birthday he had penned 35 books and 130 journal articles within the fields of national insurance law, health law

Health law

Health Law is the federal, state, and local law, rules, regulations and other jurisprudence affecting the health care industry and their application to health care patients, providers and payors, and vendors to the health care industry, including without limitation the relationships among...

, tort law and constitutional law

Constitutional law

Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....

. He chaired the committees that wrote the Norwegian Official Report

Norwegian Official Report

A Norwegian Official Report is a report published by a panel or committee appointed by the Norwegian government. The Norwegian Parliament may request the government to establish such a committee....

s 1977:14, 1986:11, 1990:20, 1995:29, 2000:28 and 2004:3. He has been the editor of several law journals.

From 1983 to 1984 he headed the Institute of Private Law, and from 1986 to 1988 he was the dean

Dean (religion)

A dean, in a church context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.-Anglican Communion:...

 of the Faculty of Law. He also holds an honorary degree

Honorary degree

An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...

 from Lund University

Lund University

Lund University , located in the city of Lund in the province of Scania, Sweden, is one of northern Europe's most prestigious universities and one of Scandinavia's largest institutions for education and research, frequently ranked among the world's top 100 universities...

, and is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway.-History:The University of Oslo was established in 1811. The idea of a learned society in Christiania surfaced for the first time in 1841. The city of Throndhjem had no university, but had a learned...

.

In 2009 he publicly supported Trygve Wyller

Trygve Wyller

Trygve Wyller is a Norwegian theologian.He was born in Stavanger. He took the cand.mag. degree in 1975, and the cand.theol. degree in 1982. He did not follow a straight academic path, as he worked as a journalist in Aftenposten from 1979 to 1983, and as a priest from 1984 to 1988. Then, he was a...

's unsuccessful campaign to become rector of the University of Oslo. Later in 2009 Kjønstad ran for election (among university employees) for a place on the University of Oslo board of directors. He has previously held such a seat from 1986 to 1988 and 1999 to 2001.

He has also been a board member of the Anders Jahre Foundation for Scientific Research since 2003 and vice president of the European Institute of Social Security from 1993 to 1997.

Anti-smoking

Kjønstad was a member of the National Council on Smoking and Health, which was incorporated into the Norwegian Directorate for Health and Social Affairs

Norwegian Directorate for Health and Social Affairs

The Norwegian Directorate for Health and Social Affairs is a specialised directorate for health and social affairs. The Directorate is an integral part of the central administration of health and social affairs in Norway, and is organised under the joint auspices of the Ministry of Health and Care...

 in 2002. He has been referred to as the "father of the smoking ban

Smoking ban

Smoking bans are public policies, including criminal laws and occupational safety and health regulations, which prohibit tobacco smoking in workplaces and/or other public spaces...

" in Norway. He has stated that only 5% of his total work has pertained to anti-smoking.

Pensioner scandal

From 2008 to 2009 he chaired a special committee that looked into the so-called pensioner scandal. Retired members of the Norwegian Parliament, whose age and tenure in parliament equalled 75 years or more, were entitled to an especially lucrative pension, nicknamed a "golden pension". However, it was discovered that some former parliament members had a second income, which was larger than the pension itself. If this were the case, the persons in question were not entitled to the pension. When the committee delivered its report in January 2009, it singled out six former parliament members as suspicious cases: Gro Harlem Brundtland

Gro Harlem Brundtland

Gro Harlem Brundtland is a Norwegian Social democratic politician, diplomat, and physician, and an international leader in sustainable development and public health. She served three terms as Prime Minister of Norway , and has served as the Director General of the World Health Organization...

, Kjell Magne Bondevik

Kjell Magne Bondevik

Kjell Magne Bondevik is a Norwegian Lutheran minister and politician . He served as Prime Minister of Norway from 1997 to 2000, and from 2001 to 2005, making him Norway's longest serving non-Labour Party Prime Minister since World War II...

, Magnus Stangeland

Magnus Stangeland

Magnus Stangeland is a Norwegian politician for the Centre Party.He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Hordaland in 1985, and was re-elected on two occasions...

, Anders Talleraas

Anders Talleraas

Anders Talleraas is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party.He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Møre og Romsdal in 1977, and was re-elected on four occasions....

, Thor-Eirik Gulbrandsen

Thor-Eirik Gulbrandsen

Thor-Eirik Gulbrandsen is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party.He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Akershus in 1977, and was re-elected on three occasions. He had previously served in the position of deputy representative during the terms 1969–1973 and 1973–1977...

 and Tore Austad

Tore Austad

Tore Austad is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party. Born in Skedsmo, Akershus, he received a cand. philol. degree in 1962, and worked as a professor of Norwegian at the University of Chicago from 1964 to 1966...

. In addition to the issue of pay and income, the committee found that some might have circumvented the 75-year rule by counting years where they, despite being elected as parliament members, actually served as government ministers. Government ministers in Norway may be recruited from Parliament, but while working in the executive branch he or she must leave Parliament, being replaced by a deputy (an element of the separation of powers

Separation of powers

The separation of powers, often imprecisely used interchangeably with the trias politica principle, is a model for the governance of a state. The model was first developed in ancient Greece and came into widespread use by the Roman Republic as part of the unmodified Constitution of the Roman Republic...

 principle). As such the years which is really spent as government minister can not count towards the specific parliamentary pension, according to Kjønstad.

As Kjønstad did not have a mandate to comment on individual cases of guilt, he chiefly blamed the pension regulatory board (composed of other members of parliament) as well as the legislators in general for creating and enforcing the law in a vague way. Already one week after the Kjønstad Committee delivered its report, the pension regulatory board announced its intent to outsource its mandate to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund

Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund

Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund is a Norwegian Government agency responsible for the extra pensions paid to state employees. There are in excess of one million members, and it has total assets of NOK 270 billion....

.

The case was sent to the President of the Storting, and was to be investigated further by the Norwegian National Authority for the Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime. Also, it was hinted that other people might be investigated. In 2009 the acquittance of Bondevik and Brundtland was announced.