(Statsallmenning/ Bygdeallmenning) in Norway. - UMB

Doshisha University University of Hyogo Norwegian University of Life Sciences
nye bruksregler er kunngjort og trådt i kraft
overensstemmende med § 3-9 første ledd.
Innen fem år etter lovens ikrafttredelse skal
det enkelte allmenningsstyre ha utarbeidet et
utkast til nye bruksregler for allmenningen.
Departementet kan for øvrig fastsette
nærmere overgangsbestemmelser i
forbindelse med lovens ikrafttredelse.
bylaws are promulgated and entered into
force in accordance with Section 3-9 first
paragraph. Within five years of the Act’s
entry into force, every commons board shall
have prepared a draft for new bylaws for the
commons.
The Ministry may also provide further
transitional provisions in connection with the
Act’s entry into force.
Endnotes
i “bygd” is translated as community. In Norwegian the word signifies a
particular type of rural community. In most cases it will refer to a
predominantly small-scale agricultural community with an identity tied
to landscape features.
“bygdeallmenninger” (singular bygdeallmenning) is here translated as
bygd commons. They are community-owned commons (as opposed to
state-owned) where farmers living in a “bygd” have certain use rights
(profits) tied to their cadastral farm units (rights of common
appendant) such as fishing, grazing, logging, etc. The rights of
common are held jointly by the commoners. By definition in a "bygd
commons" between 50 and 100 percent of the commoners hold the
land of the commons in common. This definition was introduced by
acts from 1857 and 1863. Even though the word “bygdeallmenning”
(bygd commons) was used for a long time before that, it is today
reasonable to say that bygd commons is nothing else than exactly what
the Act on bygd commons declares (see the Act on bygd commons).
Benefits from a bygd commons, like those from a stat commons, go to
the farm, to the house, etc; not to the farmer or to any other person
except as holder of a farm with rights of common appendant.
ii A right “appendant” to an agricultural holding is inalienable and
established by prescription and not by any grant. It means in this case
that the rights of common, including the fraction of the ground, are
inalienably attached to a cadastral farm unit.
iii “særlig hjemmel” (special authority) - rights and duties based on
rules enacted elsewhere.
iv Norsk Lysingsbald is the official gazette (or public journal) for
Norway. Publication here may be set as a condition for official
documentation to come into force.
v “føderåd” – a provision made for a retiring farmer on handing over
the farm to his or her heir or successor. The farmer is still allowed to
live on the farm, but in another building than the main house.
vi “seter” is most commonly used about one house or a collection of
houses traditionally used as a kind of summer dairy farm in the high
mountains or at least a considerable distance from the ordinary farm
houses. Many farmers from the lowlands could locate their summer
farm houses together in the same “seter” and put their animals to
pasture in a joint herd. A right to seter implies the right to put up a
suitable house and use it in connection with taking care of the animals.
This implies the right to put animals to pasture. Thus “seterrett” (right
to seter) is both the right to pasture and to put up a mountain pasture
house.
vii Skjøn (or skjønn) is translated as appraisement or appraisal. In
Black’s Law Dictionary appraisal is “a valuation or an estimation of
value of property by disinterested persons of suitable qualifications”.
The same dictionary defines appraisement as “A just and true valuation
of property. A valuation set upon property under judicial or legislative
authority”. In Norway skjøn refers primarily to the procedures defined
in the Act on appraisal procedures (“Lov om skjønnsprosess”). The
appraisal is done by a special local court (“skjønnsrett”). It may be
judicial if headed by a professional judge, or lay if done by a local
sheriff (“lensmannsskjøn”). The objective is primarily to get a just
decision taking due consideration of all values and interests involved
in a disagreement.
viii
“Oter” is the name of a special gear for fly-fishing.
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