Norwegian Nobel Committee

Jurist Fredrik Heffermehl has noted that a legislative body could not necessarily be expected to handle a judicial task like managing a legal will.

However, this question was not debated in depth, out of contemporary fear that the donated money might be lost in legal battles if the body was not created soon.

[5] On 26 April 1897 the Norwegian Parliament accepted the assignment and on 5 August the same year it formalized the process of election and service time for committee members.

[3] In the beginning, the committee was filled with active parliamentarians and the annual reports were discussed in parliamentary sessions.

[6] Now, active parliamentarians cannot sit on the committee, unless they have explicitly stated their intent to step down shortly.

[5] In late 1948, the election system was changed to make the committee more proportional with parliamentary representation of Norwegian political parties.

[3] The committee might receive well more than a hundred nominations and asks the Nobel Institute in February every year to research about twenty candidates.