Jens Evensen

Jens Evensen, 1974

Jens Ingebret Evensen (born  November 5, 1917 in Kristiania , †  February 15, 2004 in Asker ) was a Norwegian lawyer , diplomat and politician of the Arbeiderpartiet . From 1973 to 1978 he worked in the Norwegian government as Minister of Commerce and later as Minister without Portfolio responsible for the Secretariat for Law of the Sea , and from 1985 to 1994 he was a judge at the International Court of Justice . His activities contributed significantly to the international regulation of Norwegian access to marine resources and thus to the development of the country's oil industry .

Life

Jens Evensen was born in Kristiania, today's Oslo , in 1917 into a working-class family. He completed a law degree at the University of Oslo , which he graduated in 1942. After the end of the Second World War , he went to further studies in the United States at the University of Minnesota and Columbia University in 1947 . From 1952 to 1953 he studied on a Rockefeller Scholarship at Harvard University , where he also received his doctorate .

From 1945 to 1973 he worked as a lecturer at the law faculty of the University of Oslo. He also worked for the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , where he held the post of Director General of the Legal Department from 1961 to 1973, and was also the Ministry's ambassador and legal advisor until 1985 . In these functions he represented his home country from 1949 to 1951 and from 1955 to 1957 in two cases before the International Court of Justice in The Hague and in negotiations with the European Communities on a trade agreement concluded in 1972. In the Norwegian government he served as Minister of Commerce from 1973 to 1974 and from 1974 to 1978 under Prime Ministers Trygve Bratteli and Odvar Nordli as Minister without Portfolio responsible for the Secretariat for Maritime Law, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs .

From 1973 to 1982 he was the head of the Norwegian delegation to the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea and one of the conference's vice-presidents. In addition, he headed the delegation of his home country to the UN Committee for the Peaceful Uses of the Ocean Floor and was vice chairman of the committee from 1968 to 1973. From 1979 to 1984 he was a member of the UN International Law Commission . In 1978 he became a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. Between 1978 and 1982 he worked as an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice, to which he was elected as a regular judge together with the Chinese Ni Zhengyu in November 1984 and served from 1985 to 1994 for a regular term of nine years was.

Jens Evensen was married and the father of two sons. He died in Asker in 2004 .

Act

Jens Evensen's main focus was on maritime law, in which he contributed to the development of the legal concept of the Exclusive Economic Zones (200-mile zone), the areas of disarmament and international telecommunications law . In 1965 and 1986 he worked as a lecturer at the Hague Academy for International Law . His legal, political and diplomatic work is considered to be decisive for the international law regulation of Norway's access to marine resources in the field of oil production and fishing , and thus for the development of the Norwegian oil industry and the associated prosperity of the country.

Awards

Jens Evensen belonged to the Institut de Droit international from 1971 and was commander of the Norwegian Order of Saint Olav .

Works (selection)

• Aspects of International Law Relating to Modern Radio Communications. Series: Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law. Volume 115.The Hague 1965
• Working Methods and Procedures in the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. Series: Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law. Volume 199. The Hague 1987

literature

• Evensen, Jens. In: The International Who's Who 2004. 67th edition. Taylor & Francis, London 2003, ISBN 1-85-743217-7 , p. 507
• Biographical Note. Jens Evensen. In: Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law. Bans 199. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Den Haag 1987, ISBN 9-02-473622-6 , p. 421
• Jens Evensen. In: Arthur Eyffinger, Arthur Witteveen, Mohammed Bedjaoui : La Cour internationale de Justice 1946–1996. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague and London 1999, ISBN 9-04-110468-2 , p. 279
• Berit Ruud Retzer: Jens Evensen: Makten, Myten og Mennesket. BBG Forlag, Oslo 1999, ISBN 8-29-950680-8 (Norwegian biography)

Web links

• Norway mourns death of Jens Evensen obituary in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten (English, with picture)
• Berit Ruud Retzer - Jens Evensen biografi Website of the author of the biography of Jens Evensen (English and Norwegian)