Bibliography (codes [maa] to [mar])

Last modified: 2002-06-14 by antonio martins
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Full title: Forslag til lov om flagg og flaggbruk: tillegg: revidert utkast til lov om flagg og flaggbruk: forordninger, lover, resolusjoner, stortingsvedtak m.v.: kronologisk og analytisk oversikt over flagg og flaggbest.

Atle Grahl-Madsen (1922-1990) was a prominent scholar in the field on international law, specialising in the status of refugees. A collection of articles written in his honour was published last year. The title may suggest Grahl-Madsen’s professional interests as a jurist: The Living law of nations: essays on refugees, minorities, indigenous peoples and the human rights of other vulnerable groups in memory of Atle Grahl-Madsen. The book is edited by Gudmundur Alfredsson and Peter Mcalister-Smith (Kehl: Engel, 1996). The name of the second editor may be recognised by some of you. Dr. Mcalister-Smith has written on flags of the Red Cross and Red Crescent for the Flag Bulletin [tfb], and contributed an article on the flag of the United Nations [mcs86] to the Nordic Journal of International Law when Grahl-Madsen was the editor of that journal.

Grahl-Madsen became Cand.jur. from the University of Oslo in 1947, and received his doctorate from the same university in 1967 on a thesis entitled “The Status of Refugees in International Law”. From 1948 to 1949 he worked as a Resettlement Officer for the International Refugee Organisation in Germany. From 1952 to 1972 he had his own law firm in Bergen, while continuing to work on the status of refugees. He was a consultant to international organisations and governments. From 1967 to 1976 he was Principal Lecturer at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen. From 1978 to 1980 he was Professor of Law at the University of Uppsala and Director of the Swedish Institute of International Law. Finally, from 1980 until his death he was Professor of Law at the University of Bergen, Norway. He also taught in the USA and Germany.

In the field of flag research, Grahl-Madsen’s most important contribution was his work on Norwegian flag legislation. He proposed to revise the legislation concerning Norwegian flags, and put forward an new system of flags. For this purpose he produced a systematic collection of current and historical legislation concerning flags in Norway, a work that is still extremely valuable as a work of reference. He also wrote on Norwegian municipal flags and the legal status of the Aland Islands flag. Another interesting piece is his “(Draft) international flag standard” (Bergen, 1973 [mad73a] and 1974 [mad74]) «comprising the designation, classification, sizes, and colours of flags.» To the Flag Bulletin he contributed articles on the relationship of flags to heraldry and on flag usage in Norway (published after his death).

Judging from other things he published, Grahl-Madsen’s interests were diverse. He wrote works such as “Scangrid: geographical grid, polar grid, country codes, city codes, alpha and alphanumerical codes, new standard calendar” (Bergen, 1986), “A new standard calendar” (Bergen, 1984), “UNICODE 4: Alphabetical and numerical country codes” (Bergen, 1974), “Uniform vehicle registration system — EUROCODE” (Bergen, 1971), and he also wrote pieces on the standardisation of ranks of officers in the NATO countries. Clearly, he was a person with a high sense of order, a man who liked to see things properly and orderly arranged.

One might say that this interest for systematisation is reflected in some of his designs for new US state flags. Note, for instance, the way things are orderly and neatly stacked and arranged in the proposed flags for Connecticut, Oregon, and Wisconsin. Another striking feature of his proposals is the use of unusual colours, orange and purple, often together in the same design.

Grahl-Madsen’s “A Contribution to New Glory” [mad75] was his submission to the “New Glory” project launched by the Director of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art on the occasion of the Bicentennial of the American Revolution. The idea was to «foster better standards of design» for the flags of states, counties, cities, etc. Grahl-Madsen presented design ideas for 24 new state flags. I believe his compendium of proposed flags was also presented at the International Congress of Vexillology in Washington.

Jan Oskar Engene, 18 Jul 1997