Christian Colbjørnsen (29 January 1749 – 17 December 1814) served as the Chief Justice of Denmark-Norway from 1802 until 1814.

Background

Christian Colbjørnsen was born in

Sørum Sørum was a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Romerike. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Sørumsand. Sørum was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see ...

Akershus Akershus () is a county in Norway, with Oslo as its administrative centre, though Oslo is not located within Akershus. Akershus has been a region in Eastern Norway with Oslo as its main city since the Middle Ages, and is named after the Akers ...

, in the traditional region of

Romerike Romerike is a Districts of Norway, traditional district located north-east of Oslo, in what is today south-eastern Norway. It consists of the Akershus municipalities Lillestrøm, Lørenskog, Nittedal, Rælingen and Aurskog-Høland in the southern ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. His parents were Colbjørn Colbjørnsen Jacobsen (1714–1761) and Anna Dorothea Røring (1710–1772). Along with his brothers,

Jakob Edvard Colbjørnsen Jakob Edvard Colbjørnsen (19 November 1744 - 13 February 1802) was a Norwegian-Danish jurist who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Denmark (Da. ''Højesteret'', Nor. ''Høyesterett''). Jakob Edvard Colbjørnsen was born at Sørum in ...

(1744–1802) and Edvard Røring Colbjørnsen (1751–1792), Christian Colbjørnsen began at Christiania Cathedral School in February 1758. He left school at the end of 1763 without having completed the examination, probably because of his father's death. His relative Christian Petersen, who was Governor of

Oppland Oppland is a former county in Norway which existed from 1781 until its dissolution on 1 January 2020. The old Oppland county bordered the counties of Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The ...

, took Christian into his house and gave him work in his office. In 1768, Petersen became Prefect of

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

. Christian followed him there and seems to have been there through the end of 1771.

Career

Christian Colbjørnsen became a key official in Denmark and Norway. He set clear traces in the work of the Danish peasant reforms 1786-88. He was a leading force behind much of the legislative work that Danish Chancellery initiated in 1790s. He has also been of great importance in shaping the Supreme Court's role in the Danish-Norwegian history in the early 19th century. From 1773, he served as lawyer and he was chamber attorney from 1780-1785. From August 1786, Colbjørnsen was secretary of the Rural Commission (''Landbokommisjonen''), a Danish committee appointed by then-Crown Prince Frederik, Regent of Denmark. The purpose of the Commission was to develop proposals for improvements in agriculture and set up clear guidelines for the relationship between landlords and peasants farmers. In 1788 he was appointed president of work for the Chancellery and had great influence on Danish legislation. From 1804 until his death, Christian Colbjørnsen served as Chief Justice for the Supreme Court (Da. ''Højesteret'', Nor. ''Høyesterett'') located in the Danish-Norwegian capital,

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

. Colbjørnsen was an energetic and authoritative leader of the Supreme Court who was an avid supporter of an enlightened autocracy. ''Christian Colbjørnsen – utdypning'' (Knut Sprauten. Store norske leksikon)
/ref>

References

Bibliography

External links

''Christian Colbjørnsen''

Projekt Runeberg Project Runeberg () is a digital cultural archive initiative that publishes free electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries. Patterned after Project Gutenberg, it was founded by Lars Aronsson and ...

''Christian Colbiørnsen - en nordmann i København'' (Inge Manfred Bjørlin, 2006)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colbjoernsen, Christian 1749 births 1814 deaths 18th-century Danish lawyers 19th-century Danish lawyers Jurists from Denmark–Norway 19th-century Danish judges Norwegian jurists Chief justices of Denmark–Norway 18th-century Norwegian civil servants 19th-century Norwegian judges People from Sørum People educated at Oslo Cathedral School Burials at Assistens Cemetery (Copenhagen)