Anders Sandøe Ørsted

Anders Sandøe Ørsted (21 December 1778, Rudkøbing – 1 May 1860) was a Danish politician and jurist. He served as the Prime Minister of Denmark in 1853-1854 as leader of the Cabinet of Ørsted.

He is considered one of the most important jurists in 19th century Danish legal history. He was a pioneer of connecting jurisprudence and practice and both as a judge and as an author, he successfully worked on making practice the foundation of legislation. Relatively early, he was connected to the state administration and from 1825 to 1848, he was “generalprokurør” (juridical adviser of the government).

His political career was one of paradoxes. As a royal councillor of the absolute monarchy, he was rather liberal and tolerant and therefore often unpopular with the more conservative elements. As the opposition grew stronger however, he became more conservative and as prime minister, he was considered a full-blood reactionary. His attempt to charter a very conservative constitution led to cooperation between the king and the liberals that forced him to resign. In 1855, he was impeached on the charge of breaking the constitution, but he was acquitted and retired to private life.

He was the brother of the famous physicist Hans Christian Ørsted (1777-1851), and uncle of the botanist Anders Sandøe Ørsted (1816-1872).

References

• Dansk Biografisk Leksikon, vol. 16, 1984.
• Svend Thorsen: De danske ministerier, vol 1., Copenh. 1967.