Norway’s Supreme Court is one of the most powerful Supreme Courts in Europe. This position is in large parts due to the role and expansion of the law clerks on the Court. Beginning in 1957 with a single clerk, the number of law clerks has increased dramatically. Today, the clerks outnumber the justices, and their tasks have expanded considerably. In 1957 the task was to prepare civil appeals. Today, clerks assist in most stages of the Court’s decisional process, including the writing of the final decision. The expansion and institutionalisation of the clerk unit have enabled the justices to commence on policymaking and on developing the law. The law clerks have been key in the development of a more proactive and powerful Norwegian Supreme Court. This book is the first comprehensive study of law clerks in a European Supreme Court. It will be valuable to lawyers, historians and political scientists who care about the expanding role of courts and the impact of courts on politics, society, and the legal system.

This book explains and demonstrates how the Norwegian case of environmentalism is unique. The two connected anomalies of an inclusive and state friendly society and a strong orientation and commitment to local communities make the case stand apart from mainstream international definitions of environmentalism.

The authors study a specific political culture with a rather unique combination of state structure and civil society of which organized environmentalism is an important part. The political culture influences organizational form and organizational ideology as well as the way these organistions are linked to and interact with the goverment. The study shows why international non-government organizations (INGOs) which are successful elsewhere, such as Greenpeace, are unable to establish themselves in some countries.

The study compares Norwegian environmentalism with perspectives and findings from other political systems. More generally, this is also a study on the role of voluntary organizations and civil society in a specific type of democracy. The book throws light on why the working of the Norwegian political system a" as well as the Scandinavian political systems more generally a" is often misunderstood in the international literature.

This is the first major European political science book to discuss the growing interdisciplinary field of 'cultural theory', proposing a coherent and viable alternative to mainstream political science. The authors argue that three elements - social relations, cultural bias and behavioural strategy - illuminate political questions at a level of analysis on any scale: from the household to the state; the international regime to the political party.

eBook available with sample pages: 020319764X

This is the first major European political science book to discuss the growing interdisciplinary field of 'cultural theory', proposing a coherent and viable alternative to mainstream political science. The authors argue that three elements - social relations, cultural bias and behavioural strategy - illuminate political questions at a level of analysis on any scale: from the household to the state; the international regime to the political party.

their collective action. The more unique the case, the more we need to study it not only to understand the case itself but also to understand the structure and limits of environmentalism in general. We hope that we have been able to show the value of this research strategy. The way we have organized our study is different from the Rootes study (2003). This study emphasizes the importance of different environmental cultures and of political conjunctures in a single country of which different environm- tal groups take advantage. We are not arguing against the fact that branches of environmentalism have features in common across countries (e.g., animal rights and antinuclear movements). However, we would not go as far as the Rootes study. We argue that looking at political conjunctures, even if important, does not tell the whole story. Researchers need to understand the broader context in which political conjunctures and environmental culture operate.