Anders Sandøe Ørsted (21 December 1778 – 1 May 1860) was a Danish

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

. He served as the

Prime Minister of Denmark The prime minister of Denmark (, , ) is the head of government in the Kingdom of Denmark comprising the three constituent countries: Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Before the creation of the modern office, the kingdom did not init ...

in 1853–1854.

Biography

He studied philosophy and law at the

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

and was admitted to the bar in 1799. He became a noted jurist. An early case overseen by him was that of Hans Jonatan, an escaped slave, which was (at least viewed retrospectively) a major test case in Danish law on slavery; Anders condemned Hans to be returned to the West Indies, where he had been purchased (Hof-og Stadsret: ''Generalmajorinde Henriette de Schimmelmann contra mulatten Hans Jonathan 1802''). Relatively early, he was connected to the national administration, and from 1825 to 1848, he was “''generalprokurør''” (juridical adviser of the government). He drew up the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

which was granted in 1831. He was cabinet minister 1842–48, and from October 1853 to December 1854 was prime minister. He was forced to resign from his office as prime minister by his unpopular conservatism, a distinct departure from his earlier politics. In 1855, he was impeached on the charge of breaking the constitution, but he was acquitted and retired to private life.

Analysis

He is considered one of the most important jurists in 19th century Danish legal history. He was a pioneer of connecting

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

and practice, and both as a judge and as an author, he successfully worked on making practice the foundation of legislation. His political career was one of paradoxes. As a royal councillor of the absolute monarchy, he was rather liberal and tolerant and therefore often unpopular with the more conservative elements. As the opposition grew stronger however, he became more conservative and as prime minister, he was considered a full-blood reactionary. His attempt to charter a very conservative constitution led to cooperation between the king and the liberals that forced him to resign. He also was a joker in the England times.

Literary works

Throughout his career Ørsted was a prolific writer. Among other things he wrote on

Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, et ...

ian and

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...

ian philosophy, on Danish and Norwegian law, on

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

n politics (1857) and left an autobiography (1856). He was also the editor of several journals, most notable ''Juridisk Arkiv'' (1804-1812), ''Nyt Juridisk Arkiv'' (1812-1830) and ''Juridisk Tidsskrift'' (1820-1840), as well as the official government periodical publication ''Collegial-Tidende'' (1815-34 co-edited with Peter Johan Monrad, and exclusively by Ørsted 1834–1848).

Family

He was the brother of noted physicist

Hans Christian Ørsted Hans Christian Ørsted (; 14 August 1777 – 9 March 1851), sometimes Transliteration, transliterated as Oersted ( ), was a Danish chemist and physicist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields. This phenomenon is known as ...

(1777–1851), and uncle of the botanist Anders Sandøe Ørsted (1816–1872). He was married to Sophie Ørsted née Oehlenschläger (1782–1818), and was therefore the brother-in-law of poet Adam Oehlenschläger (author of the Danish national anthem ''

Der er et yndigt land "" (; ) is one of the two national anthems of Denmark—the other being the royal anthem "Kong Christian stod ved højen mast". History The lyrics were written in 1819 by Adam Oehlenschläger and bore the motto in (Horace: "This corner of the ...

'' among other works).

References

Other sources

*''Dansk Biografisk Leksikon'', vol. 16, 1984. *Svend Thorsen: ''De danske ministerier'', vol 1., Copenh. 1967. *
List of Danish Prime Ministers Since 1848
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orsted, Anders Sandoe 1778 births 1860 deaths 19th-century Danish judges 19th-century Danish jurists 19th-century Danish lawyers 19th-century Danish politicians People from Langeland Municipality Ministers of the interior of Denmark Kultus ministers of Denmark Prime ministers of Denmark Members of the Landsting (Denmark) University of Copenhagen alumni Members of the Constituent Assembly of Denmark