2.1.2 National legal framework Norway is a party to both the 1954 Convention and the 1961 Convention,32 without reservation to either.33 Norway is also a party to the 1997 European Convention on Nationality of the Council of Europe, the Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in Relation to State Succession of the Council of Europe, and various other international and regional conventions relating to stateless persons.34 Norway has a dualistic system of law, which means in principle that international and regional conventions to which the Norwegian state is a contracting party will not be applicable in Norway unless special measures have been taken under domestic law.35 Importantly, however, certain Norwegian laws contain a general provision incorporating international legal obligations. When such a provision is present, the domestic law must defer to Norway’s international obligations if the two are in conflict. This is known as “sector monism,” and such provisions are found in Article 3 of the Immigration Act and Article 3 of the Nationality Act. Although the Norwegian Immigration Act does not contain express references to the two major statelessness conventions, through the sector monism provisions found in the Immigration and Nationality Acts, the 1954 and 1961 Conventions are incorporated into Norwegian law and thus enforceable under domestic law. Under Norwegian law, administrative authorities and Norwegian courts apply and interpret domestic law according to the “principle of presumption” (presumsjonsprinsippet), a doctrine of interpretation under which domestic legislation shall be interpreted in accordance with relevant international obligations. The presumption is that domestic law would not have been adopted or maintained if it were in conflict with Norway´s international obligations.36 Under Norwegian law, domestic law is to be interpreted in accordance with international law in the event of a conflict. How the law is to be interpreted where the domestic law is silent is an open question under Norwegian law. During consultations undertaken during this mapping the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) has stated that it applies international law even where the Norwegian law is silent. In 2014, the Constitution was amended and a new Chapter E now contains a number of explicit references to human rights.37 Where the existing domestic law is already in harmony with a provision of a convention to which Norway is party, no amendment to the domestic law is needed (n. konstatering av rettsharmoni). By contrast, when domestic law is inconsistent with an international obligation, conventions can be adopted in whole or in part through an Act of Parliament. The Norwegian Immigration Act is, for example, understood to cover many articles of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.38 Some international conventions are further implemented into Norwegian law by the aforementioned methods. 32 Ratified 19 November 1956. See Utenrikesdepartementet, St. prp. Nr. 75 Om innhentelse av stortingets samtykke til å ratifisere konvensjonen om statsløse stilling av 28. September 1954, Stortingsarkivet 1956. 33 On 23 May 2001, Norway made a declaration to the reservation and declaration made by the Republic of Tunisia upon accession to the 1961 Convention about the deprivation of nationality. The Government of Norway declared that the reservations made by the Republic of Tunisia “are contrary to the object and purpose of the Convention, as they aim at limiting the obligations that States undertake when acceding to it, the core obligation being to reduce statelessness.” See also United Nations Treaty Collection, Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, available at: https://goo.gl/ufiVL2. 34 Eudo, International Legal Norms–Norway, available at: http://goo.gl/B8kjUr. 35 Although not specifically stated in the Norwegian Constitution, this can be implied from a number of Articles, e.g. 1, 3, 49, 88 and 93. 36 Helset, P., and Stordrange, B., Norsk statsforfatningsrett, 1998, pp. 165-166. 37 See https://goo.gl/41Mzsy. 38 Vigdis Vevstad, Utlendingsloven (2011). See also Articles 3, 28-31, and 37 of the Act of 15 May 2008 on the entry of foreign nationals into the kingdom of Norway and their stay in the realm, Lov om utlendingers adgang til riket od deres opphold her, (‘Immigration Act’), available at: http://goo.gl/s4Dgbh UNHCR STOCKHOLM, OCTOBER 2015 15