Christian Adolph Diriks (1 November 1775 – 16 December 1837) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

lawyer and statesman. He served as a representative at the

Norwegian Constitutional Assembly The Norwegian Constituent Assembly (in Norwegian ''Grunnlovsforsamlingen'', also known as ''Riksforsamlingen'') is the name given to the 1814 constitutional assembly at Eidsvoll in Norway, that adopted the Norwegian Constitution and formalised th ...

in 1814.

Biography

Christian Adolph Diriks was born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, Denmark. He was the son of maritime captain Boye Boyesen Dyriks (1744–80) and Marie Elisabeth Stoppel (d. 1797). After studying law at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public research university in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia after Uppsala Unive ...

, he earned his cand. jur. in 1795. He worked for some years in the city court of Copenhagen. In 1806, Diriks was appointed Assessor in

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporati ...

. In 1812, he was made Director of the Justice Court ( ''Justisråd'') for

Laurvig Larvik () is a town and municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Larvik. The municipality of Larvik has about 46,364 inhabitants. The municipality has a 110 ...

(now Larvik). Diriks was

Magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...

in Laurvig and Judge from 1812 to 1815. It was from Laurvig that he was elected to the Constitutional Assembly. As the legal secretary of the Constitutional Committee, he played an important part in shaping the language of the

Norwegian Constitution nb, Kongeriket Norges Grunnlov nn, Kongeriket Noregs Grunnlov , jurisdiction = Kingdom of Norway , date_created =10 April - 16 May 1814 , date_ratified =16 May 1814 , system =Constitutional monarchy , ...

. Diriks was the Assembly's resident expert on foreign constitutions, and emphasized civil liberties. He was responsible for the inclusion of §100, concerning freedom of speech, and §102, guarding against unreasonable

searches and seizures Search and seizure is a procedure used in many civil law and common law legal systems by which police or other authorities and their agents, who, suspecting that a crime has been committed, commence a search of a person's property and confiscat ...

. He was later made president of the Assembly, with responsibility for passing the Constitution. Shortly after the dissolution of the Assembly, Diriks was appointed professor of law at the newly founded

Royal Frederick University 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 ...

(today's

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 ...

), but continuing government responsibilities prevented him from taking up the position. Among the positions he held were Minister of the Police and Minister of Justice from 1814 to 1818, and Minister of Education and Church Affairs from 1825 to 1836. He did not enjoy the support of Count

Wedel-Jarlsberg The Count of Wedel-Jarlsberg (also ''Wedel Jarlsberg'') is a title of the Norwegian nobility and of the Danish nobility. The family of Wedel-Jarlsberg is a branch of the larger family von Wedel, which comes from Pomerania, Germany. Family members ...

, however and when Wedel-Jarlsberg was appointed Governor-general of Norway in 1836, Diriks was forced to retire.

Personal life

Christian Adolph Diriks was married to Maren Cathrine Tax (1772-1848). They were the parents of nine children including Norwegian government minister Christian Ludvig Diriks and Norwegian maritime officer Carl Frederik Diriks. Christian Adolph Diriks was also the grandfather of the artist Edvard Diriks.''Christian Adolph Diriks'' (lokalhistoriewiki.no)
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References

External links

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20150813165401/http://eidsvollsmenn.no/english ''Men of Eidsvoll'' (eidsvollsmenn)

Biography

Personal life

References

External links

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