How does the Norwegian Storting select and appoint members to the Nobel Committee?

1. Legal basis and core rule: elected by the Storting

Alfred Nobel’s will directed that the Peace Prize be awarded by “a committee of five persons, to be elected by the Norwegian Storting,” and Norwegian parliamentary rules adopted to implement the will state explicitly that the five Committee members are elected by the Storting ^{[1] [2]}. Contemporary official descriptions from the Nobel organizations repeat that composition and appointment responsibility: five members appointed by the Storting ^{[2] [6]}.

2. Term length and partisan balance

Members are elected for six‑year terms and may be re‑elected, and the Storting’s rules instruct that the Committee’s composition should, insofar as possible, reflect the relative strengths of the political parties in Parliament — a built‑in proportionality principle designed to produce cross‑party representation ^{[1] [3] [4]}. This is the chief mechanism by which parliamentary politics translate into the Committee’s membership, linking domestic party arithmetic to the body that selects the Peace Prize laureates ^[2].

3. Evolving eligibility rules to protect independence

Historical controversies prompted changes to reduce executive influence: until 1936 government ministers frequently sat on the Committee, but after the contentious 1935 award practice was changed to bar current government members from sitting on the Committee ^{[1] [3]}. In 1977 the practice evolved further into an explicit rule that current members of the Storting cannot be elected to the Nobel Committee, a reform adopted “out of continued regard for the Committee’s independence” that formalized a degree of separation between sitting MPs and Committee membership ^{[1] [3]}.

4. How the Storting actually chooses appointees

The formal act is an election in the Storting: candidates proposed and then appointed by parliamentary vote under the Storting’s internal procedures, with the aim of reflecting party proportions ^{[1] [2]}. Parliamentary committee work — often through the Storting’s Election Committee or equivalent internal mechanisms — has been described in analysis as the practical vehicle for allocating Committee seats to parties, and some reporting notes the existence of deputy members to stand in if needed ^[7]. Public sources provide the institutional outcome (parliamentary election and proportionality) but do not publish a single, uniform step‑by‑step checklist for nominations and internal bargaining within parties ^{[2] [7]}.

5. Internal Committee structure once appointed

Once Parliament has appointed the five members, the Norwegian Nobel Committee organizes itself: it chooses its own chairman and deputy chairman and is assisted in its work by the Norwegian Nobel Institute, whose Director serves as the Committee’s secretary ^{[3] [2]}. The Committee conducts the prize‑selection work in confidentiality and is institutionally separate from the Storting in day‑to‑day adjudication, even if its membership originates in parliamentary appointment ^{[2] [8]}.

6. Persistent debates: independence, politicization, and reform proposals

Critics and commentators argue that the parliamentary appointment mechanism inevitably imports partisan perspectives and that, despite the 20th‑century reforms, the Committee’s membership has tended to be filled by former politicians and reflect domestic political currents — a dynamic that fuels claims of politicization and calls for recruitment of internationally oriented or professional experts ^{[5] [7]}. Defenders note that proportional representation of parties is intended to provide legitimacy and pluralism; sources reporting criticism and internal reform proposals show the debate is alive, but public documentation from the Storting and Nobel bodies focuses on the formal rules rather than the private negotiations behind each election ^{[5] [1]}.