Karin Maria Bruzelius (born 19 February 1941) is a Swedish-born Norwegian supreme court justice and former president of the

Norwegian Association for Women's Rights The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights ( no, italic=no, Norsk Kvinnesaksforening; NKF) is Norway's oldest and preeminent women's and girls' rights organization and works "to promote gender equality and all women's and girls' human rights thr ...

. In 1989, she became the first woman to be appointed Permanent Secretary of a government ministry, heading the Ministry of Transport and Communications until 1997. She was appointed supreme court justice on the

Supreme Court of Norway The Supreme Court of Norway ( Norwegian Bokmål: ''(Norges) Høyesterett''; Norwegian Nynorsk: ''(Noregs) Høgsterett''; lit. ‘Highest Court’) was established in 1815 on the basis of section 88 in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway, w ...

in 1997, retiring in 2011. She has previously also been a director-general in the

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

and a corporate lawyer. She was a member of the

Permanent Court of Arbitration The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a non-UN intergovernmental organization located in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides services of arbitral tribunal to resolve disputes that aris ...

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 o ...

from 2004 to 2010 and chaired the Petroleum Price Board from 1987 to 2004. She served as president of the

from 1978 to 1984 and from 2018 to 2020. She has been affiliated with the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law at the

University of Oslo Faculty of Law The Faculty of Law ( no, Det juridiske fakultet) of the University of Oslo is Norway's oldest law faculty, established in 1811 as one of the four original faculties of The Royal Frederick University (renamed the University of Oslo in 193 ...

since 2011.

Background

She was born in Lund, Sweden, as the daughter of the judge and legal scholar

Anders Bruzelius Anders Sommar Bruzelius (14 November 1911 – 11 October 2006) was a Swedish jurist, judge and an early collaborator of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He earned his jur.kand. (JD) at Stockholm University in 1934, and was a judge on Lund District Court from ...

. She graduated as jur.kand. (JD) from

Lund University , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

in 1969. When she was a law student at Lund University,

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg ( ; ; March 15, 1933September 18, 2020) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by Presiden ...

stayed at the university to co-author the book ''Civil Procedure in Sweden'' with her father, and Ginsburg became a close friend of the family. Karin Bruzelius later said that "by getting close to my family, Ruth realized that one could live in a completely different way, that women could have a different lifestyle and legal position than what they had in the United States;" Bruzelius' father and Ginsburg jointly received honorary doctorates at Lund in 1969.

Legal career

Following her graduation in 1964 she briefly worked as an assistant judge in Gothenburg. Later that year she moved to Norway as a result of her marriage to Norwegian lawyer and peace activist

Fredrik Heffermehl Fredrik Stang Heffermehl (born 11 November 1938) is a Norwegian jurist, writer and peace activist. He formerly worked as a lawyer and civil servant from 1965 to 1982 and was the first secretary-general of the Norwegian Humanist Association from 19 ...

. Bruzelius became a Norwegian citizen in 1972 and was naturalized through an act of parliament in 1974, a rare procedure that was necessary for appointment of a foreign-born person to higher office in the civil service. She worked in the

Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police The Royal Ministry of Justice and Public Security ( no, Det kongelige justis- og beredskapsdepartement) is a Norwegian government ministry that oversees justice, the police, and domestic intelligence. The main purpose of the ministry is to provid ...

from 1965 to 1982, and became a principal officer in the ministry's legal affairs department in 1974, an assistant director-general in the department in 1978 and a director-general and head of the ministry's polar department in 1979. Her work in the Ministry of Justice focused on transport legislation and

private international law Conflict of laws (also called private international law) is the set of rules or laws a jurisdiction applies to a case, transaction, or other occurrence that has connections to more than one jurisdiction. This body of law deals with three broad t ...

as well as international law issues related to Svalbard and the

Norwegian continental shelf The Norwegian continental shelf ( no, Den norske kontinentalsokkelen) (abbreviated as NCS) is the continental shelf over which Norway exercises sovereign rights as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The area of the s ...

where Norway was developing its petroleum industry at the time. She was only the second woman to become a director-general in a government ministry, and the first in the Ministry of Justice. From 1982 to 1987, she worked as a corporate lawyer for the Nordic Association of Marine Insurers, before returning to central government as a director-general in the Ministry of Transport and Communications. She was promoted to secretary-general (permanent under-secretary of State), the chief civil servant of the ministry, in 1989 as the first woman to hold such a position in Norway. In 1997, she was appointed by the King-in-Council as Cupreme Court Justice on the

, and served until 2011. She was also a member of the

at The Hague from 2004 to 2010. Since 2011 she has been affiliated with the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law. She has chaired the Petroleum Price Board (1987–2004), responsible for setting norm prices for

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

produced on the

. She chairs the Norwegian Financial Services Complaints Board. She was president of the

1978–1984 and 2018–2020; she was also Vice President of the association 1974–1978 and 2014–2016, and a board member for 18 years between 1974 and 2020. She was a board member of the

International Alliance of Women The International Alliance of Women (IAW; french: Alliance Internationale des Femmes, AIF) is an international non-governmental organization that works to promote women's rights and gender equality. It was historically the main international org ...

1979–1985. From 2016, she is currently a member of the

Norwegian Women's Lobby The Norwegian Women's Lobby (NWL; no, italic=no, Norges kvinnelobby) is a feminist policy and advocacy organization in Norway, and is described as the country's "main, national, umbrella organization" for women's rights. NWL is inclusive, promot ...

's expert committee. On 5 February 2008, the Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs of the

Norwegian Parliament The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...

recommended that a commission be named to investigate and, if warranted, prosecute for impeachment three of the Norwegian Supreme Court Justices who presided over the cases of

Fritz Moen Fritz Yngvar Moen (17 December 1941 – 28 March 2005) was a Norwegian man wrongfully convicted of two distinct murders, serving a total of 18 years in prison. After the convictions were quashed, an official inquiry was instigated to establis ...

, a victim of

miscarriage of justice A miscarriage of justice occurs when a grossly unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Inno ...

. The three were Bruzelius, Magnus Matningsdal and

Eilert Stang Lund Eilert Stang Lund (born 15 July 1939) is a Norwegian judge. He graduated as cand.jur. from the University of Oslo in 1965 and as Master of Law from Harvard University in 1973. He then worked as a consultant in the Ministry of Justice and the Pol ...

. However, when the case was treated by the Standing Committee on Justice three months later, it was closed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruzelius, Karin Maria Supreme Court of Norway justices Norwegian women's rights activists 1941 births Living people Norwegian civil servants Norwegian women judges Columbia Law School alumni Lund University alumni Swedish emigrants to Norway 20th-century Norwegian politicians 20th-century Norwegian women politicians Norwegian Association for Women's Rights people