2.1. Introduction

Abstract

This chapter discusses the constitutional jurisprudence in the Nordic countries and in the U.S. around the turn of the twentieth century. American courts developed and adapted early 19th century modes of thought until parts of that conceptual framework foundered in the 1930s and 1940s. The constitutional jurisprudence at the turn of the 20th century was thus a continuation of the American constitutional tradition. These modes of thought were then introduced into Nordic law by influential treatise writers, but there was a shorter time in which the 19th century ideas of vested rights and suspicion of special legislation were dominant in Norwegian constitutional thought before the double shock of World War I and the Great Depression coupled with progressivism and, most importantly, new legal and judicial attitudes led to the changes in constitutional jurisprudence.Keywords: American law; Nordic constitutional jurisprudence