Peder Krabbe Gaarder was a Norwegian jurist and political theorist.

He was born in Alstahaug

Alstahaug

Alstahaug is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Helgeland region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Sandnessjøen....

. As a political theorist on constitutional law

Constitutional law

Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....

 he weighted popular sovereignty

Popular sovereignty

Popular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people is the political principle that the legitimacy of the state is created and sustained by the will or consent of its people, who are the source of all political power. It is closely associated with Republicanism and the social contract...

 over separation of powers

Separation of powers

The separation of powers, often imprecisely used interchangeably with the trias politica principle, is a model for the governance of a state. The model was first developed in ancient Greece and came into widespread use by the Roman Republic as part of the unmodified Constitution of the Roman Republic...

. He published Fortolkninger over Grundloven og de øvrige Love, som danne Norges Riges offentlige Ret in 1845 and Om den Norske Constitution. Modbemærkninger til B. Dunkers Skrift om samme Gjenstand in 1846.

Despite favoring the revolutionary Marcus Thrane

Marcus Thrane

Marcus Møller Thrane was a Norwegian author, journalist, and the leader of the first Norwegian labor movement, later known as the Thrane movement .-Early life:...

 movement, which peaked around 1850, he was hired at the Office of the Auditor General of Norway

Office of the Auditor General of Norway

The Office of the Auditor General of Norway is the state auditor of the Government of Norway and directly subordinate of the Parliament of Norway. It is responsible for auditing, monitoring and advising all state economic activities, including financial audits, performance audits and corporate...

 from 1851. He was later promoted to Auditor General of Norway from 1882 to his death in 1883.