Concession laws

The concession laws (Norwegian: Konsesjonslovene) is a term for acts that were first passed by the Norwegian Storting in 1906 (also known as the "panic laws", Norwegian: panikklover, expanded in 1909 and 1917) that greatly regulated access to the acquisition of watercourses in Norway. Terms of escheat were incorporated into the concession law of September 18, 1909 on the acquisition of waterfalls, mines, and so on, and were continued in the industrial concession law ratified in 1917. Reversion to the state through escheat ensured that water rights in private hands would eventually become subject to public ownership.

The concession laws were adopted after a lengthy political struggle and were intended to prevent large foreign companies from buying up and controlling hydropower and other Norwegian natural resources. Norwegian politicians that were particularly strongly engaged in creating the concession laws included Gunnar Knudsen from the Liberal Party and Johan Castberg from the Radical People's Party.

The concession laws were a dominant topic in Norwegian politics from the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905 to the First World War. The issue created government crises and led to political splits. The underlying cause was major technological changes, industrial growth, and hydropower plants that saw their first major expansion. Increasingly more people became aware that waterfalls and rivers, referred to as "white coal" (Norwegian: hvite kull), could be developed to produce electricity. Opportunities for major industry based on hydropower created prospects for quick profits. Rural people were largely unaware of these new innovations. Merchants traveled around the country, buying up water rights on a grand scale. They were often referred to as "hydropower speculators" (Norwegian: fossespekulanter) because most of them purchased simply to resell at a profit. Those buying the water rights were often backed by foreign investors. In 1906, over three-quarters of the waterfalls that had been developed were foreign-owned. Water resources director Gunnar Sætren was also connected with waterfall speculation and was extensively criticized for having given a map of the catchment areas in Norway to Swedish capital interests, as a result of which he left his position in 1907.

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