Trial lecture - time and place
Adjudication committee
- Professor Gudrun Holgersen, University of Bergen (leder - 1. opponent)
- Prefekt, Universitetslektor, Docent Thomas Erhag, University of Gothenburg (2. opponent)
- Forsker 1 dr. philos Aksel Hatland, Institute for social research
Chair of defence
Professor Kirsten Sandberg, University of Oslo
Supervisors
- Professor emeritus Asbjørn Kjønstad, University of Oslo
- Professor Frederik Zimmer, Universitety of Oslo
Summary
Concepts of income in National Insurance Act - a complex system
National Insurance Act plays an important role in the Norwegian welfare state.
The Act ensures an income and covers expenses in situations such as unemployment, sickness, invalidity and old age.
According to the Act one person's income is of relevance in several relations. For example, the right to get social benefits can depend on the person's income. The income can also decide the amount of the benefits to recieve.
The thesis conducts a comprehensive analysis of the concepts of income in the scope of the National Insurance Act. The different questions related to income are systemized. This kind of analysis has not been done earlier in the legal literature.
The thesis shows that there are many different concepts of income. The question of loss of income can be solved in different ways because of different concepts of income. Similar provisons in the Act regarding the amount of the benefits can also be intrepreted differently because of different concepts of income.
One of the main points of the thesis is to show that different concepts of income creates legal uncertanity. The citizens can't predict their legal status. There is also a risk of wrongfull decisions from the administration, and the citizens can be guided away from their lawful rights.
The thesis also shows that the administration has created the differences in the concept of income. In situations where the understanding of the concepts of income reduces the citizen's rights given by law, the intrepretation can be a violation of the principle of legality. An understanding of concepts of income which gives larger rights than decided by the Norwegian national assembly, "Stortinget", can be a violation of the principle that Stortinget is to decide the size of the public budgets.