Francis Hagerup

Who was Francis Hagerup?

George Francis Hagerup was a Norwegian law professor, diplomat and politician for the Conservative Party. He was Prime Minister of Norway from 14 October 1895 to 17 February 1898 and from 22 October 1903 to 11 March 1905.

Francis Hagerup grew up in Trondheim. He was son of admiral and government minister Henrik Steffens Hagerup and Nicoline Christine Jenssen. He graduated cand.jur. in 1876, received a grant to study abroad, and became a university grantee in 1879. He became dr.juris in 1885, and he was professor of law at the University of Oslo from 1887 to 1906. He was minister of justice in the Second cabinet Stang from 2 May 1893 to 14 October 1895. In August 1895 he was Finance minister. He was a member of the Storting from 1901 to 1906.

Following his two bouts as Prime Minister, he entered the diplomacy in 1906, as ambassador to Copenhagen, The Hague, and Brussels. From 1916 he was ambassador in Stockholm.

Hagerup was passionately involved in the development of public international law. From 1897 he was member of L'Institut de Droit International, of which he became the chairman in 1912, In 1907 he headed the Norwegian delegation at the second peace conference in The Hague. He was also delegate at international conferences regarding admiralty law. In 1920 he led the Norwegian delegation when the League of Nations convened for the first time in Geneva. The same year he was elected to the Law committee under the League council. In 1888, he founded Tidsskrift for Retsvidenskab, and served as its editor until his death.