The Department of Civil Affairs has a broad field of activity that primarily concerns the rights of individual citizens.
Tasks involve administration of:
- the scheme for free legal aid and the Lotteries Act.
- letters rogatory, extraditions, the Foundations Act, the Guardianship Act, commissions of inquiry, the Criminal Violence Compensation Board and international conventions.
- legislation concerning the legal profession, fee regulations, cases of international child abduction, ex gratia payments, debt collection cases and legal aid.
- studies concerning white-collar crime, the Norwegian Advisory Council on Bankruptcy, the Creditors Security Act, the Insolvency Act, the guarantee scheme, agency management and internal administration.
- the Personal Data Registers Act, the Mediation Boards, the Act relating to Personal Names, registration policy, the State’s liability for damages, information technology, entailed estates, lost property, waiver and statutory limitation, maintenance cases, ratification of wills, the Norwegian Law Gazette and the Act relating to Site Leases.
Subordinate agencies and bodies:
- Secretariates of Justice
- The Norwegian Advisory Council on Bankruptcy
- Mediation boards (deal with criminal cases that are transferred from the prosecuting authority. Can deal with cases transferred from members of the public or various bodies.)
- Norwegian Criminal Cases Review Commission
- Norwegian Bureau for the Investigation of Police Affairs
