Fridtjof Frank Gundersen
Encyclopedia
Fridtjof Frank Gundersen (29 October 1934 – 11 November 2011) was a Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 professor of jurisprudence and politician. He worked as a lector at the Faculty of Law of 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...

 from 1965 to 1975. In 1975 he became professor of jurisprudence at the Norwegian School of Economics.

Gundersen was elected a Member of Parliament in 1981 representing the Progress Party
Progress Party (Norway)
The Progress Party is a political party in Norway which identifies as conservative liberal and libertarian. The media has described it as conservative and right-wing populist...

 platform, but did not formally join the party until 1990. He fell out of parliament in 1985, but was re-elected for three consecutive four-year terms from 1989. He left the party in 2001, and failed to get re-elected to parliament again in the election later the same year, having stood for a local electoral list
County lists for the Norwegian parliamentary election, 2001
The county lists for the Norwegian parliamentary election, 2001 was a group of nine political lists, or parties, which under different names ran for the 2001 parliamentary election in Norway...

. Following the defeat, he retired as politician.

Early life and education

Gundersen was born in Tynset
Tynset
Tynset is a municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Østerdalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Tynset.-Name:...

 in Hedmark
Hedmark
is a county in Norway, bordering Sør-Trøndelag, Oppland and Akershus. The county administration is in Hamar.Hedmark makes up the northeastern part of Østlandet, the southeastern part of the country. It includes a long part of the borderline with Sweden, Dalarna County and Värmland County. The...

 to lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 Ragnar Gundersen (1895–1985) and Betzy Lommeland (1902–1994). After finishing
Examen artium
Examen artium was the name of the academic certification conferred in Denmark and Norway, qualifying the student for admission to university studies. Examen artium was originally introduced as the entrance exam of the University of Copenhagen in 1630...

 his secondary education in 1954, he came through the Russian language course of the Norwegian army, and achieved the law degree cand.jur. 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...

 in 1961. In 1963 he was the vice chairman of the Norwegian Students' Society. He took the admission course in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1963, and was a secretary in the Ministry until 1965.

Professional career

From 1965 he worked as a lector
Lector
Lector is a Latin term for one who reads, whether aloud or not. In modern languages the word has come to take various forms, as either a development or a loan, such as , , and . It has various specialized uses:...

 at the Faculty of Law of the University of Oslo, first in private law
Private law
Private law is that part of a civil law legal system which is part of the jus commune that involves relationships between individuals, such as the law of contracts or torts, as it is called in the common law, and the law of obligations as it is called in civilian legal systems...

, then in public law
Public law
Public law is a theory of law governing the relationship between individuals and the state. Under this theory, constitutional law, administrative law and criminal law are sub-divisions of public law...

. In 1973 he achieved the doctoral degree dr. juris. In 1975 he became professor of jurisprudence at the Norwegian School of Economics. He was an awarded lecturer, and has written a large number of publications, regarding law, economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

, parliamentary issues such as control of trade monopolies, administrative law, trade law, governance mechanisms, contract law and related things. Many of his books were issued through his own publishing house, operating out of Jar
Jar, Norway
Jar is a district in the municipality of Bærum, Norway. Its population is 4,868.It is served by the Jar rail station on the Kolsås Line.-References:...

 and Sandvika
Sandvika
is the administrative centre of the municipality of Bærum in Norway. It was declared a city by the municipal council in Bærum on 4 June 2003.Sandvika is situated approximately west of Oslo. It is the main transportation hub for Western Bærum, and has a combined bus and railway station. Sandvika is...

.

In 2006 he admitted to having been a secret intelligence agent for Norway, having reported to the Norwegian Intelligence Service
Norwegian Intelligence Service
Etterretningstjenesten or the Norwegian Intelligence Service is a Norwegian military intelligence agency under the Chief of Defence and the Ministry of Defence....

 from communist congresses he attended in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 during the 1950s and 1960s. This was revealed after pressure from Dag Seierstad who had accused him of this for a long time. In addition to Norwegian, Gundersen had a fluent command of Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 and also spoke some Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

.

He was a member of the Broadcasting Council
Broadcasting Council (Norway)
The Broadcasting Council is an advisory board to the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation .The role of the Broadcasting Council is to discuss and comment on NRK's programming agenda for Norwegian radio and television, as well as to advise on administrative and financial matters...

 from 1986 to 1990, having been a deputy member since 1982. From 1983 to 1985 he was also a member of the commission that prepared the launch of TV 2
TV 2 (Norway)
TV 2 is the largest commercial television station in Norway. Over 30% of the time Norwegians spend watching TV is spent watching TV 2. The station has 65% of the market for TV commercials in Norway....

.

Political career

Gundersen was an active member of the Conservative Party from the mid-1960s. He was chairman of the party's Tenkegruppe 99 from 1966 to 1971 and a member of the party's political council until 1975. In the mid-1970s Gundersen left both the Conservative Party and the Church of Norway
Church of Norway
The Church of Norway is the state church of Norway, established after the Lutheran reformation in Denmark-Norway in 1536-1537 broke the ties to the Holy See. The church confesses the Lutheran Christian faith...

, as he according to himself "wanted to stand completely free." He was elected to the Parliament of Norway in 1981
Norwegian parliamentary election, 1981
-Results:...

 representing the Progress Party
Progress Party (Norway)
The Progress Party is a political party in Norway which identifies as conservative liberal and libertarian. The media has described it as conservative and right-wing populist...

, although he did not formally join the party until 1990, and was technically an independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

 before that. He represented the county of Akershus
Akershus
- Geography :The county is conventionally divided into the traditional districts Follo and Romerike, which fill the vast part of the county, as well as the small exclave west of Oslo that consists of Asker and Bærum...

. He lost his seat in 1985, and the same year he wrote the memoir-like Fri og frank på Tinget.

He decided to enter local politics, and from 1987 to 1989 he was a member of the Bærum
Bærum
is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Sandvika. Bærum was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838. A suburb of Oslo, Bærum is located on the west coast of the city....

 municipal council. He was re-elected to Parliament in 1989
Norwegian parliamentary election, 1989
A general election to the Storting, the parliament of Norway, was held on 11 September 1989.-Results:1 This list was a cooperation between the Norwegian Communist Party, Workers' Communist Party, Red Electoral Alliance and independent socialists....

, 1993
Norwegian parliamentary election, 1993
A general election to the Storting, the parliament of Norway, was held on 13 September 1993. The Labour Party won a plurality of seats, and Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland remained in office. The Centre Party was particularly successful, gaining 21 seats....

 and 1997
Norwegian parliamentary election, 1997
A general election to the Storting, the parliament of Norway, was held on 15 September 1997. Before the election, Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland of the Labour Party, issued the 36.9 ultimatum declaring that the government would step down unless it gained 36.9% of the vote, the percentage gained...

. He thus served three consecutive terms, until 2001. During these twelve terms, he stayed a member of the Parliament's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs
Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence
The Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence is a standing committee of the Parliament of Norway. It is responsible for policies relating foreign affairs, military, development cooperation, Svalbard or in other polar regions and matters in general relating to agreements between Norway and...

 and the Enlarged Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence
Enlarged Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence
The Enlarged Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence is a special committee of the Parliament of Norway. It holds non-disclosed discussions with the government regarding important issues of foreign affairs, trade policy and security issues. Other issues are discussed in the Standing Committee on...

.

In February 2001, Gundersen left the party due to not being renominated for a safe seat
Safe seat
A safe seat is a seat in a legislative body which is regarded as fully secured, either by a certain political party, the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both...

 in Akershus. Other reasons were the recent exclutions and interventions in local nominations by party chairman Carl I. Hagen
Carl I. Hagen
Carl Ivar Hagen is a Norwegian politician and former Vice President of the Norwegian Parliament. He was the chairman of the Progress Party from 1978 until 2006, when Siv Jensen replaced him as chairman of the party...

. Gundersen tried together with other breakaways of the party to run with the Liberal People's Party
Liberal People's Party (Norway)
The Liberal People's Party was a political party in Norway, established because of a split in the Liberal Party over the issue of Norway's accession to the European Economic Community in 1972...

, but as this failed he rather ran for the new local Oslo List
County lists for the Norwegian parliamentary election, 2001
The county lists for the Norwegian parliamentary election, 2001 was a group of nine political lists, or parties, which under different names ran for the 2001 parliamentary election in Norway...

. The election for the party became a failure, and he thus pulled out from active politics.

Political views

Gundersen regarded himself as a libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...

, and was noticed in the Norwegian public debate for numerous unexpected inputs. During the 1960s and 1970s he was a political commentator in the magazine Dag og Tid
Dag og Tid
Dag og Tid is a national weekly newspaper in Norway that uses the Nynorsk standard of the Norwegian language. The newspaper was founded in 1962, is politically independent but editorially radical and focuses on culture and politics. The current editor is Svein Gjerdåker. Its circulation is...

. During this time, he among other things argued in favor of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, apartheid, the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 and the European Economic Community
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...

. Later, during his time as a politician for the Progress Party, he argued in favor of boycott of such countries as Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

, and against immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

. He was regarded as one of the more intellectual and ideological figures in the party.

He claimed that Norwegians are a homogenous people, poorly able to absorb large ethnic minorities who are mostly loyal to their own culture, and that potential problems regarding this will only become more evident in the future. In 1997, he called for a stop of foreign cultural immigration to avoid conflicts, and stated that he thought immigrants of the time could be the terrorists of the future. In 1997 he also drew parallels to the Bosnian War
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...

 as a possible future scenario in Norway, that "there is a great risk that we will become flooded by Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s", and that he would not be surprised if Norway would see "serious terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

" within ten to twenty years. In early 2001 he nonetheless praised Muslims in cities like Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

 and Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

 for taking more personal care of their friends and family, instead of merely being dependent on public welfare
Welfare
Welfare refers to a broad discourse which may hold certain implications regarding the provision of a minimal level of wellbeing and social support for all citizens without the stigma of charity. This is termed "social solidarity"...

 programs which is common in countries like Norway.

Personal life

Gundersen was married in 1965 to Mosse Piene (1 April 1935 – 1991). After her death, he lived in cohabitation
Cohabitation
Cohabitation usually refers to an arrangement whereby two people decide to live together on a long-term or permanent basis in an emotionally and/or sexually intimate relationship. The term is most frequently applied to couples who are not married...

 with Marit Munro (born 13 November 1939). Gundersen spent much of his free time in Vence
Vence
Vence is a commune set in the hills of the Alpes Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France between Nice and Antibes.-Population:-Sights:...

, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

Fridtjof Frank Gundersen died in November 2011 after long-term illness.

Writings

Gundersen has written several publications.
  • 1966: Ny solidaritet (et al.), Aschehoug
    Aschehoug
    H. Aschehoug & Co , commonly known as Aschehoug, is one of the largest independent publishing companies in Norway. -History:...

  • 1968: Introduksjon til EEC. Rettslige og politiske spørsmål, Universitetsforlaget
    Universitetsforlaget
    Universitetsforlaget AS is a Norwegian academic publishing company, which publishes non-fiction literature and journals. Universitetsforlaget is the main academic press in Norway....

  • 1968: FN-ideal og realitet (with Per Morten Vigtel), Gyldendal
    Gyldendal
    Gyldendal may refer to:*Gyldendal, a Danish publishing house*Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, a Norwegian publishing house founded as a demerger from the Danish one*Søren Gyldendal, the founder of the Danish publishing house...

  • 1969: Fremtiden utfordrer politikerne (editor), Minerva forlag
  • 1970: Konservativ kommentar til A-partiets prinsipp-program (editor), Høyres "Tenkegruppe 99"
  • 1970: Etableringsretten og Det europeiske økonomiske samarbeid, Grøndahl & Søn Forlag
    Grøndahl & Søn Forlag
    Grøndahl & Søn Forlag was a Norwegian publishing house established in 1812. Christopher Grøndahl started it as a print in 1812, before it started commercial publishing in 1875. It was acquired by J.W. Cappelens Forlag in 1990, merged with Dreyers Forlag in 1991 into Grøndahl & Dreyers Forlag. The...

  • 1970: Multinasjonale konserner og kontrollen med dem, European Movement Norway
  • 1971: EEC-håndboken. 2 bind, Universitetsforlaget
    Universitetsforlaget
    Universitetsforlaget AS is a Norwegian academic publishing company, which publishes non-fiction literature and journals. Universitetsforlaget is the main academic press in Norway....

  • 1972: Kontrollen med karteller og storbedrifter, Universitetsforlaget
    Universitetsforlaget
    Universitetsforlaget AS is a Norwegian academic publishing company, which publishes non-fiction literature and journals. Universitetsforlaget is the main academic press in Norway....

  • 1973: Roma-traktaten og planene om et norsk engrosmonopol for øl, Universitetsforlaget
    Universitetsforlaget
    Universitetsforlaget AS is a Norwegian academic publishing company, which publishes non-fiction literature and journals. Universitetsforlaget is the main academic press in Norway....

  • 1973: Statlige handelsmonopoler og EF, Universitetsforlaget
    Universitetsforlaget
    Universitetsforlaget AS is a Norwegian academic publishing company, which publishes non-fiction literature and journals. Universitetsforlaget is the main academic press in Norway....

  • 1977: Hovedlinjer i avtaleretten, Jar
  • 1977: Norsk og internasjonal markedsrett (with Ulf Bernitz), Jar
  • 1978: Hovedlinjer i forvaltningsretten, Jar ISBN 9788299076333
  • 1979: Bedrifts- og personalrett (with Christian Schjoldager), Bergen ISBN 9788290961027
  • 1981: Om å bruke andres penger. En innføring i norsk parasittøkonomi, Oslo ISBN 9788299076302
  • 1982: Privatrett for økonomer (with Arthur J. Brudvik), Jar ISBN 9788299076319
  • 1985: Fri og frank på Tinget: liberalisme med norsk vri
  • 1986: Praktisk jus - spørsmål og svar, Sandvika ISBN 9788290961072
  • 1988: Jus for økonomer (with Arthur J. Brudvik), Jar ISBN 9788290961058
  • 1989: Helse og politiske styringsmekanismer, Tano ISBN 9788251826402
  • 1989: EF-boken, Tano ISBN 9788251827072
  • 1989: Lov og rett for næringslivet (with Sverre F. Langfeldt), Tano ISBN 9788251825702
  • 1992: Innføring i EØS og EF-rett (with Ulf Bernitz), ISBN 9788290961041
  • 2002: Introduksjon til EU, ISBN 9788290961195
  • 2010: EU - etter Lisboa-traktaten: institusjoner, rettssystem og rettsregler, Gyldendal
    Gyldendal
    Gyldendal may refer to:*Gyldendal, a Danish publishing house*Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, a Norwegian publishing house founded as a demerger from the Danish one*Søren Gyldendal, the founder of the Danish publishing house...

    ISBN 978-82-05-40145-7
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