Chief Justice Toril Marie Øie

Toril Marie Øie was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Norway in March 2016. She is the 20th Chief Justice in the 200-year history of the Supreme Court and the first woman to hold this office.

Chief Justice Øie was born in Oslo in 1960. She graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo in 1986.

From 1986 to 2004, she was employed in the Legislation Department of the Ministry of Justice and the Police – from 1990 as a legal adviser and from 2000 as Deputy Director General and Head of the Unit for Criminal Law and Procedure. The work in the Legislation Department consisted mainly in preparing amendments, legal opinions often on interpretation issues, and legal-technical assistance to other ministries.

From 1988-1990, Toril Marie Øie took leave of absence from the Legislation Department to serve as a deputy judge and later an acting judge and acting chief judge at Strømmen District Court.

In the years between 1994 and 2002, in addition to her work in the Legislative Department, she was also a senior lecturer at the Institute of Public Law of the University of Oslo. There, she gave lectures on criminal law, criminal procedure and civil procedure.

She was appointed Supreme Court Justice in August 2004.

Chief Justice Øie has been a member of the local Norwegian board of the Nordic Conferences of Lawyers from 2008 to 2017. She has previously also been a subject editor of Norsk lovkommentar (Norwegian law commentary) from 2011 to 2015 and has held various public offices. She has written two textbooks on criminal law, is co-author of commentaries on the Dispute Act, is co-editor of the Supreme Court’s bicentenary publication and commemorative volume to former Chief Justice Tore Schei, and has also written a number of articles, mainly on criminal law and procedure.

On 9 October 2018, Toril Marie Øie was appointed Commander with Star of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav.