The Norwegian Gold Clause Case

Abstract

The Norwegian Supreme Court, sitting in banc (the Chief Justice, with fourteen Associate Justices)1 on May 2, 1962, rendered judgment in the so-called gold clause case.2 This was an appeal case arising out of an action brought against the Norwegian Government, and two Norwegian Government-sponsored banks, by an association of French investors, the Association des Porteurs Franqais de Valeurs Mobilieres. Members of this association are the holders of bonds, issued by the Norwegian Government in 1896, 1902, 1903, 1904, and 1905, by the Mortgage Bank of the Kingdom of Norway in 1900, 1902, 1905, 1907, and 1909, and by the Small Holding and Workers' Housing Bank3 in 1904. The bonds-made out to bearer-were payable in several currencies and contained, in one form or another, references to gold. The loans in respect of which the bonds were issued, had been floated through consortiums of banks. The majority of the participants in the consortiums were French and other foreign banks; some Norwegian banks, however, also took part. The bonds of the Government were payable in Norwegian crowns, French francs, and pounds sterling; those of the loan of 1903 in Reichsmark as well. The bonds and the coupons were expressed in Norwegian, French, and English. (The bonds of the loan of 1903, however, had a German text, instead of an English one.) Underneath the amount in crowns on top of the mantle (the frame surrounding the text on the face of the instruments) were added the words: d'Or in parenthesis. other places in the text were inserted, after the amounts in crowns, the words I Guld, En Monnaie d'Or, or In Gold; such