Berit Reiss-Andersen is a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 lawyer, author and former politician for the Norwegian Labour Party

Norwegian Labour Party

The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....

. She is currently the President of the Norwegian Bar Association

Norwegian Bar Association

The Norwegian Bar Association is an association of Norwegian lawyers. It was established in 1908 as , and assumed its current name from 1965. As of 2008 the association had about 7,000 members. Among its publications are the journals Norsk Retstidende and Rettens Gang....

 and a member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee

Norwegian Nobel Committee

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Nobel Peace Prize each year.Its five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament and roughly represent the political makeup of that body.-History:...

, the 5-member committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...

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Reiss-Andersen served as state secretary for the Minister of Justice and Police

Minister of Justice and the Police (Norway)

In Norway, the Minister of Justice and the Police is the head of the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police and a member of Government of Norway. Current minister is Grete Faremo of the Norwegian Labour Party who is part of the second cabinet Stoltenberg...

 from 1996 to 1997, and co-authored two crime novels with former Minister of Justice Anne Holt

Anne Holt

-Career:She was born in Larvik, grew up in Lillestrøm and Tromsø, and moved to Oslo in 1978 where she lives today with her registered partner Anne Christine Kjær and their daughter Iohanne. Holt graduated with a law degree from the University of Bergen in 1986, and worked for The Norwegian...

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She was elected as a Member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee by the Storting (Parliament) on 22 November 2011, and was nominated by the Norwegian Labour Party. Her term starts 1 January 2012 and ends 31 December 2017.

Her paternal grandfather was Gunnar Reiss-Andersen

Gunnar Reiss-Andersen

Gunnar Reiss-Andersen was a Norwegian lyric poet and author.Born in southern Norway in Larvik municipality, Reiss-Andersen went to sea at 17 years of age, sailing the Baltic and North Seas for a year in the brig “Baron von Holberg", which was commanded by his uncle, Knut Knutsen...

, who wrote lyric poetry.