Jens Ingebret Evensen (5 November 1917 – 15 February 2004) was a Norwegian lawyer, judge, politician (for the Labour Party), trade minister, international offshore rights expert, member of the

International Law Commission The International Law Commission (ILC) is a body of experts responsible for helping develop and codify international law. It is composed of 34 individuals recognized for their expertise and qualifications in international law, who are elected by t ...

and judge at the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

. He negotiated Norway's trading deal with

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...

in 1972 as minister of commerce in which he served in the governments of both

Trygve Bratteli (11 January 1910 – 20 November 1984) was a Norwegian newspaper editor and politician with the Norwegian Labour Party. He served as the 26th prime minister of Norway from 1971 to 1972 and again from 1973 to 1976. He was president of the No ...

and

Odvar Nordli Odvar Nordli (3 November 1927 – 9 January 2018) was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party. He was the 28th prime minister of Norway from 1976 to 1981 during the Cold War. Before serving as Prime Minister, Nordli served as the minister o ...

. He then served as maritime law minister until 1979. He worked to secure government income from Norwegian oil discoveries. The UN's oceans treaty (1982) is greatly fundamental based on Evensen's work. Former Labour Party politician and head of

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...

(NRK)

Einar Førde Einar Førde (20 January 1943 – 26 September 2004) was a Norwegian journalist and politician of the Labour Party. He served as Minister of Education and Church Affairs from 1979 to 1981, and director-general of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corp ...

called Jens Evensen "one of the great Norwegians of the last century".

Early life

Evensen grew up in a labour environment in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

(called Kristiania until 1925). He was the son Jens Evensen (1877–1957) and Hanna Marie Victoria Bjerkås (1885–1958). His father was a successful butcher in Grønland. His father routinely gave out meat and sausages to the underprivileged on the east side of Oslo and Evensen himself helped out to support those who had no work or food. Evensen was originally to take over his father's butcher business In 1936 Evensen enrolled in the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

Law School. His first job after he graduated was at the law firm Folkvard Bugge. The firm specialized in helping

tenants A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a ...

to enforce their legal right to buy the apartments they lived in. Evensen helped the tenants, many of whom were illiterate, and explained the rights they had. During the

German occupation of Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the ...

, Evensen volunteered in the

Norwegian resistance movement The Norwegian resistance (Norwegian: ''Motstandsbevegelsen'') to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany began after Operation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms: *Asserting the legitimacy of the exiled government, ...

, helping, among other things, to create false identity papers. After World War II, he was appointed attorney in fact and prosecutor a number of treasons trials the Norwegian government brought against collaborators during the post-war legal purge. Here he began the extensive work of finding what collaborationist leader

Vidkun Quisling Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling (, ; 18 July 1887 – 24 October 1945) was a Norwegian military officer, politician and Nazi collaborator who nominally headed the government of Norway during the country's occupation by Nazi Germ ...

and his subordinates had stolen during the war. Nonetheless, Evensen distanced himself from the death penalty eventually handed to Quisling. In 1947, he went to the United States to further his education. He was granted a scholarship by

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American financier and philanthropist, and the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. He was involved in the development of the vast office complex in ...

and began his study at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. This was an international environment where he got to know and befriend many people from the oil business.

Career

Evensen led the Norwegian Foreign Ministry's legal department from 1961 to 1973. Norway was unprepared when representatives from Phillips Petroleum in the US came to Norway in 1962 to request oil exploration rights in the North Sea. Evensen took up the challenge, and proceeded to develop the foundation for the country's legal claims to the Norwegian continental shelf. Former prime ministers Odvar Nordli and Kaare Willoch praised Evensen's work on securing Norway's rights to offshore resources, which, in turn, spawned the country's oil industry. He later became a politician, campaigning against joining the

. He also served as trade minister for the Labour Party. He was both respected and controversial and angered fellow Labour Party officials when he agreed to shared management of fishing resources in the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; no, Barentshavet, ; russian: Баренцево море, Barentsevo More) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territo ...

with the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. His top aide,

Arne Treholt Arne Treholt (born 13 December 1942) is a Norwegian-born, Russia-based convicted felon and former KGB agent who was convicted of treason and espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union against Norway during the Cold War and sentenced to 20 years in ...

, was later convicted of spying for the Soviet Union, and Evensen reportedly never got over the shock and disappointment. Evensen also came into conflict with foreign minister

Knut Frydenlund Knut Frydenlund (31 March 1927 – 26 February 1987) was a Norwegian diplomat and politician for the Labour Party who served as foreign minister from 1973–1981 and again from 1986–1987. Frydenlund was born in Drammen and began his diplo ...

in 1980, when he supported a nuclear-free zone in the Nordic Countries.

Later life

He remained an international expert on offshore rights and contributed to the creation of economic zones extending out to sea. He later became a judge at the international court in

, sitting until 1993. He died in February 2004.

Honors

*Swedish

Order of the Polar Star The Royal Order of the Polar Star (Swedish: ''Kungliga Nordstjärneorden'') is a Swedish order of chivalry created by King Frederick I on 23 February 1748, together with the Order of the Sword and the Order of the Seraphim. The Order of the ...

*Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav * honorary Doctorate from

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University ( gd, Oilthigh Heriot-Watt) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and subsequently granted univ ...

in 1974.

References

Other sources

*Berit Ruud Retzer (1999) ''Jens Evensen: Makten, myten og mennesket : en uautorisert biografi'' (Oslo] : BBG Forl.)

External links

"Norway mourns death of Jens Evensen"
''

Aftenposten ( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 million ...

,'' 17 February 2004. {{DEFAULTSORT:Evensen, Jens 1917 births 2004 deaths Lawyers from Oslo Ministers of Trade and Shipping of Norway University of Oslo alumni Harvard University alumni International Court of Justice judges Labour Party (Norway) politicians Politicians from Oslo International Law Commission officials Recipients of the St. Olav's Medal Knights of the Order of the Polar Star Norwegian officials of the United Nations Norwegian judges of United Nations courts and tribunals