Former CAS Project Leader, Jørn Øyrehagen Sunde, Honored with Prestigious Sarton Medal

Sunde, who led the CAS project Social Governance Through Legislation together with Erik Opsahl in 2021/2022, received the medal from the Dean of the Faculty of Law at Ghent University, Professor Michel Tison, in a ceremony held this week.

Since 1986, each faculty at Ghent University has nominated a researcher within their discipline for the Sarton Medal. Professor Øyrehagen Sunde earned this year's accolade for his extensive contributions to European legal history over the last two decades. His research spans traditional legal history, legal culture, and comparative law, covering areas from property rights to the rule of law and petroleum licenses, and encompassing a millennium of legal history up to the current legal situation.

The Sarton Committee emphasized Sunde's breadth of research and his ability to communicate effectively, highlighting his persistent engagement with the European research community as key factors in their decision.

Feeling honoured and overwhelmed by the recognition, Øyrehagen Sunde shared with Juristen (a magazine published by the Norwegian Association of Lawyers) how moving it was to have his entire career celebrated in this way. 

— It was quite overwhelming to sit there and have my whole career presented. I knew I was in the group of researchers who could receive the Sarton Medal, especially after delivering 'The Stair Society Annual Lecture' in Edinburgh in 2019, but the award still came as a tremendous honour, he said. Read the article in juristen.no here >

The Sarton Medal is named after George Sarton, a Belgian scholar considered the founder of the history of science as an academic discipline.

Read our interview with professors Øyrehagen Sune and Opsahl here >