List of parliaments of Iceland

Last updated March 26, 2023

Historical overview

Commonwealth of Iceland (930–1262)
- The parliament was founded at Þingvellir in 930. It held both legislative and judicial power but no executive power was present in the country.
Union with Norway (1262–1814)
- When Iceland became a dependency of Norway, the legislative power of the parliament was shared with the king of Norway who ruled through his officials. Laws adopted by the parliament were subject to royal assent and, conversely, if the king initiated legislation, the parliament had to give its consent.
Danish monarchy (1380–1944)
- Norway falls under the control the Danish monarchy and Iceland along with it. The parliament served almost exclusively as a court of law until the year 1800 when it was disbanded by royal decree.
- A royal decree providing for the reestablishment of the parliament was issued on 8 March 1843. Elections were held the following year and the assembly finally met on 1 July 1845. The parliament functioned however only as a consultative assembly.
Constitution of Iceland (1874)
- The constitution of 1874 granted to the parliament joint legislative power with the crown in matters of exclusive Icelandic concern. The king retained the right to veto legislation and often, on the advice of his ministers, refused to consent to legislation adopted by the parliament.
- The parliament began meeting in the newly built Parliament House in 1881 and has done so ever since.
- A constitutional amendment, confirmed on 3 October 1903, granted Icelanders home rule and parliamentary government.
- After 1915 standing committees began operating in the parliament for the first time. The parliament was bicameral and each chamber had the same seven standing committees.
Kingdom of Iceland (1918–1944)
- The parliament was granted unrestricted legislative power.
Republic of Iceland (1944–present)
- In May 1991 the parliament became unicameral, operating in a unified chamber.
- Iceland joins the European Economic Area in 1994, thus transferring significant legislative power to the European Union.

Parliament as a consultative assembly (1845–1873)

Parliament	Year	Begin date	Adjourn date	Election	Head of state
1st	1845	1 July	5 August	—	Christian VIII
2nd	1847	1 July	7 August		Christian VIII
3rd	1849	2 July	8 August		Frederick VII
National Assembly	1851	5 July	9 August
4th	1853	1 July	10 August
5th	1855	2 July	9 August
6th	1857	1 July	17 August
7th	1859	1 July	18 August
8th	1861	1 July	19 August
9th	1863	1 July	17 August
10th	1865	1 July	26 August		Christian IX
11th	1867	1 July	11 August
12th	1869	27 July	13 August
13th	1871	1 July	22 August
14th	1873	1 July	2 August

Parliament as a legislature (1875–present)

Parliament	Begin date (continuation)	Adjourn date (deferment)	Election	Head of state
1st	1 July 1875	26 August 1875	—	Christian IX
2nd	2 July 1877	30 August 1877
3rd	1 July 1879	27 August 1879
4th	1 July 1881	27 August 1881
5th	2 July 1883	27 August 1883
6th	1 July 1885	27 August 1885
7th (special session)	28 July 1886	26 August 1886
8th	1 July 1887	26 August 1887
9th	1 July 1889	26 August 1889
10th	1 July 1891	26 August 1891
11th	1 July 1893	26 August 1893
12th (special session)	1 August 1894	28 August 1894
13th	1 July 1895	24 August 1895
14th	1 July 1897	26 August 1897
15th	1 July 1899	26 August 1899
16th	1 July 1901	26 August 1901
17th (special session)	26 July 1902	25 August 1902
18th	1 July 1903	26 August 1903
19th	1 July 1905	29 August 1905
20th	1 July 1907	14 September 1907		Frederick VIII
21st	15 February 1909	8 May 1909
22nd	15 February 1911	10 May 1911
23rd (special session)	15 July 1912	26 August 1912		Christian X
24th	1 July 1913	13 September 1913
25th (special session)	1 July 1914	13 August 1914
26th	7 July 1915	15 September 1915
27th (special session)	11 December 1916	13 January 1917	August 1916 October 1916
28th	2 July 1917	17 September 1917
29th (special session)	10 April 1918	18 July 1918
30th (special session)	2 September 1918	10 September 1918
31st	1 July 1919	27 September 1919
32nd (special session)	5 February 1920	1 March 1920	1919
33rd	15 February 1921	21 May 1921
34th	15 February 1922	26 April 1922
35th	15 February 1923	14 May 1923	1922
36th	15 February 1924	7 May 1924	1923
37th	7 February 1925	16 May 1925
38th	6 February 1926	15 May 1926
39th	9 February 1927	19 May 1927	1926
40th	19 January 1928	18 April 1928	1927
41st	15 February 1929	18 May 1929	1927
42nd	17 January 1930 26 June 1930	19 April 1930 28 June 1930	1930
43rd	14 February 1931	(dissolution) 14 April 1931	1930
44th (special session)	15 July 1931	24 August 1931	1931
45th	15 February 1932	6 June 1932
46th	15 February 1933	3 June 1933
47th (special session)	2 November 1933	9 December 1933	1933
48th	1 October 1934	22 December 1934	1934
49th	15 February 1935 10 October 1935	4 April 1935 23 December 1935
50th	15 February 1936	9 May 1936
51st	15 February 1937	(dissolution) 20 April 1937
52nd (special session)	9 October 1937	22 December 1937	1937
53rd	15 February 1938	12 May 1938
54th	15 February 1939 1 November 1939	26 April 1939 5 January 1940
55th	15 February 1940	24 April 1940
56th	15 February 1941	17 June 1941
57th (special session)	9 July 1941	10 July 1941
58th (special session)	13 October 1941	21 November 1941
59th	16 February 1942 (no continuation)	23 May 1942 (dissolution) 5 July 1942
60th (special session)	4 August 1942	9 September 1942	July 1942
61st (special session)	14 November 1942	14 April 1943	October 1942
62nd	15 April 1943 1 September 1943	21 April 1943 17 December 1943
63rd	10 January 1944 10 June 1944 2 September 1944	11 March 1944 20 June 1944 3 March 1945		Sveinn Björnsson
64th	1 October 1945 1 February 1946	21 December 1945 29 April 1946
65th (special session)	22 July 1946 19 September 1946	25 July 1946 9 October 1946
66th	10 October 1946 7 January 1947	22 December 1946 24 May 1947	1946
67th	1 October 1947 20 January 1948	20 December 1947 24 March 1948
68th	11 October 1948 21 January 1949	20 December 1948 18 May 1949
69th	14 November 1949 4 January 1950	20 December 1949 17 May 1950	1949
70th	10 October 1950 8 January 1951	19 December 1950 7 March 1951
71st	1 October 1951 3 January 1952	20 December 1951 24 January 1952
72nd	1 October 1952 12 January 1953	19 December 1952 6 February 1953		Ásgeir Ásgeirsson
73rd	1 October 1953 5 February 1954	18 December 1953 14 April 1954	1953
74th	9 October 1954 4 February 1955	18 December 1954 11 May 1955
75th	8 October 1955 5 January 1956	17 December 1955 28 March 1956
76th	10 October 1956 21 January 1957	22 December 1956 31 May 1957	1956
77th	10 October 1957 4 February 1958	20 December 1957 4 June 1958
78th	10 October 1958	14 May 1959
79th (special session)	21 July 1959	15 August 1959	June 1959
80th	20 November 1959 28 January 1960	7 December 1959 3 June 1960	October 1959
81st	10 October 1960 16 January 1961	20 December 1960 29 March 1961
82nd	10 October 1961 1 February 1962	19 December 1961 18 April 1962
83rd	10 October 1962 29 January 1963	20 December 1962 20 April 1963
84th	10 October 1963 16 January 1964	21 December 1963 14 May 1964	1963
85th	10 October 1964 1 February 1965	22 December 1964 12 May 1965
86th	8 October 1965 7 February 1966	17 December 1965 5 May 1966
87th	10 October 1966 1 February 1967	17 December 1966 19 April 1967
88th	10 October 1967 16 January 1968	20 December 1967 20 April 1968	1967
89th	10 October 1968 7 February 1969	21 December 1968 17 May 1969		Kristján Eldjárn
90th	10 October 1969 12 January 1970 2 March 1970	19 December 1969 3 February 1970 4 May 1970
91st	10 October 1970 25 January 1971	18 December 1970 7 April 1971
92nd	11 October 1971 20 January 1972	21 December 1971 20 May 1972	1971
93rd	10 October 1972 25 January 1973	21 December 1972 18 April 1973
94th	10 October 1973 21 January 1974	21 December 1973 (dissolution) 9 May 1974
95th (special session)	18 July 1974	5 September 1974
96th	29 October 1974 27 January 1975	21 December 1974 16 May 1975	1974
97th	10 October 1975 26 January 1976	20 December 1975 19 May 1976
98th	11 October 1976 24 January 1977	21 December 1976 4 May 1977
99th	10 October 1977 23 January 1978	21 December 1977 6 May 1978
100th	10 October 1978 25 January 1979	22 December 1978 23 May 1979	1978
101st	10 October 1979	(dissolution) 16 October 1979	1978
102nd (special session)	12 December 1979 8 January 1980	21 December 1979 29 May 1980	1979
103rd	10 October 1980 26 January 1981	20 December 1980 25 May 1981		Vigdís Finnbogadóttir
104th	10 October 1981 20 January 1982	19 December 1981 7 May 1982
105th	11 October 1982 17 January 1983	18 December 1982 14 March 1983
106th	10 October 1983 23 January 1984	20 December 1983 22 May 1984	1983
107th	10 October 1984 28 January 1985	20 December 1984 21 June 1985
108th	10 October 1985 27 January 1986	21 December 1985 23 April 1986
109th	10 October 1986 13 January 1987	20 December 1986 19 March 1987
110th	10 October 1987	11 May 1988	1987
111th	10 October 1988 6 February 1989	6 January 1989 20 May 1989
112th	10 October 1989 22 January 1990	22 December 1990 5 May 1990
113th	10 October 1990 14 January 1991	21 December 1990 20 March 1991
114th (special session)	13 May 1991	31 May 1991
115th	1 October 1991 6 January 1992	22 December 1991 20 May 1992	1991
116th	17 August 1992 4 January 1993 10 February 1993	22 December 1992 14 January 1993 9 May 1993
117th	1 October 1993 24 January 1994 16 June 1994	21 December 1993 11 May 1994 17 June 1994
118th	1 October 1994 25 January 1995	30 December 1994 25 February 1995
119th (special session)	16 May 1995	15 June 1995
120th	2 October 1995 30 January 1996	22 December 1995 5 June 1996	1995
121st	1 October 1996 28 January 1997	20 December 1996 17 May 1997		Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
122nd	1 October 1997 27 January 1998	20 December 1997 5 June 1998
123rd	1 October 1998 6 January 1999 2 February 1999 25 March 1999	20 December 1998 13 January 1999 11 March 1999 25 March 1999
124th (special session)	8 June 1999	16 June 1999
125th	1 October 1999 1 February 2000 2 July 2000	21 December 1999 13 May 2000 2 July 2000	1999
126th	2 October 2000 15 January 2001 8 February 2001	16 December 2000 24 January 2001 20 May 2001
127th	1 October 2001 22 January 2002	14 December 2001 3 May 2002
128th	1 October 2002 21 January 2003	13 December 2002 15 March 2003
129th (special session)	26 May 2003	27 May 2003
130th	1 October 2003 28 January 2004 5 July 2004	15 December 2003 28 May 2004 22 July 2004	2003
131st	1 October 2004 24 January 2005	10 December 2004 11 May 2005
132nd	1 October 2005 17 January 2006 30 May 2006	9 December 2005 4 May 2006 3 June 2006
133rd	2 October 2006 15 January 2007	9 December 2006 18 March 2007
134th (special session)	31 May 2007	13 June 2007
135th	1 October 2007 15 January 2008	14 December 2007 29 May 2008	2007
136th	1 October 2008 20 January 2009	22 December 2008 (dissolution) 17 April 2009
137th (special session)	15 May 2009	28 August 2009
138th	1 October 2009 8 January 2010 29 January 2010 2 September 2010	30 December 2009 8 January 2010 24 June 2010 28 September 2010	2009
139th	1 October 2010 17 January 2011 2 September 2011	18 December 2010 15 June 2011 17 September 2011
140th	1 October 2011 17 December 2011	16 January 2012 19 June 2012
141st	11 September 2012 22 December 2012	14 January 2013 28 March 2013
142nd (special session)	6 June 2013 10 September 2013	5 July 2013 18 September 2013	2013
143rd	1 October 2013 14 January 2014 18 June 2014	21 December 2013 16 May 2014 18 June 2014
144th	9 September 2014 20 January 2015	16 December 2014 3 July 2015
145th	8 September 2015 19 January 2016 8 June 2016 15 August 2016	19 December 2015 2 June 2016 8 June 2016 13 October 2016
146th	6 December 2016 24 January 2017	22 December 2016 1 June 2017	2016	Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson
147th	12 September 2017	27 September 2017	2016
148th	14 December 2017 22 January 2018 17 July 2018	30 December 2017 12 June 2018 18 July 2018	2017
149th	11 September 2018 21 January 2019 28 August 2019	14 December 2018 20 June 2019 2 September 2019
150th	10 September 2019 20 January 2020 27 August 2020	17 December 2019 30 June 2020 4 September 2020
151st	1 October 2020 18 January 2021 6 July 2021	18 December 2020 13 June 2021 6 July 2021
152nd	23 November 2021 17 January 2022	28 December 2021 16 June 2022	2021
153rd	—	—	2021

Related Research Articles

A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies differ from absolute monarchies in that they are bound to exercise powers and authorities within limits prescribed by an established legal framework.

In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. The term is similar to the idea of a senate, synod or congress and is commonly used in countries that are current or former monarchies. Some contexts restrict the use of the word parliament to parliamentary systems, although it is also used to describe the legislature in some presidential systems, even where it is not in the official name.

A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president or monarch vetoes a bill to stop it from becoming law. In many countries, veto powers are established in the country's constitution. Veto powers are also found at other levels of government, such as in state, provincial or local government, and in international bodies.

The Parliament of Canada is the federal legislature of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and is composed of three parts: the King, the Senate, and the House of Commons. By constitutional convention, the House of Commons is dominant, with the Senate rarely opposing its will. The Senate reviews legislation from a less partisan standpoint and may initiate certain bills. The monarch or his representative, normally the governor general, provides royal assent to make bills into law.

The Alþingi is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at Þingvellir, situated approximately 45 kilometres (28 mi) east of what later became the country's capital, Reykjavík. Even after Iceland's union with Norway in 1262, the Althing still held its sessions at Þingvellir until 1800, when it was discontinued. It was restored in 1844 by royal decree and moved to Reykjavík. The restored unicameral legislature first came together in 1845 and after 1874 operated in two chambers with an additional third chamber taking on a greater role as the decades passed until 1991 when Althing became once again unicameral. The present parliament building, the Alþingishús, was built in 1881, made of hewn Icelandic stone. The unicameral parliament has 63 members, and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional representation. The current speaker of the Althing is Birgir Ármannsson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal assent</span> Formal approval of a proposed law in monarchies

Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in others that is a separate step. Under a modern constitutional monarchy, royal assent is considered little more than a formality. Even in nations such as the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein and Monaco which still, in theory, permit their monarch to withhold assent to laws, the monarch almost never does so, except in a dire political emergency or on advice of government. While the power to veto by withholding royal assent was once exercised often by European monarchs, such an occurrence has been very rare since the eighteenth century.

Tricameralism is the practice of having three legislative or parliamentary chambers. It is contrasted with unicameralism and bicameralism, each of which is far more common.

The Løgting is the unicameral parliament of the Faroe Islands, an autonomous territory within the Danish Realm.

The Constitution of Iceland is the supreme law of Iceland. It is composed of 80 articles in seven sections, and within it the leadership arrangement of the country is determined and the human rights of its citizens are preserved. The current constitution was first instituted on 17 June 1944 when Iceland became a republic; since then, it has been amended seven times.

The Norwegian monarch is the head of state of Norway, which is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system. The Norwegian monarchy can trace its line back to the reign of Harald Fairhair and the previous petty kingdoms which were united to form Norway; it has been in unions with both Sweden and Denmark for long periods.

The Parliament of Romania is the national bicameral legislature of Romania, consisting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. It meets at the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, the capital of the country.

The Constitution of Belgium dates back to 1831. Since then Belgium has been a parliamentary monarchy that applies the principles of ministerial responsibility for the government policy and the Trias Politica.

The Kingdom of Iceland was a sovereign and independent country under a constitutional and hereditary monarchy that was established by the Act of Union with Denmark signed on 1 December 1918. It lasted until 17 June 1944 when a national referendum established the Republic of Iceland in its place.

Law of Iceland during the Commonwealth (930—1262) was decided by the Althing. It has changed over the years but the legislative body is still called Althing.

Stöðulögin were laws passed by Denmark in 1871, determining the standing of Iceland in relation to the Danish state. The laws were followed by the granting of Iceland's first constitution in 1874.

The Icelandic Independence movement was the collective effort made by Icelanders to achieve self-determination and independence from the Kingdom of Denmark throughout the 19th and early 20th century.

The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege, and immunity recognized in common law and, sometimes, in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy as belonging to the sovereign and which have become widely vested in the government. It is the means by which some of the executive powers of government, possessed by and vested in a monarch with regard to the process of governance of the state, are carried out.

The Court of Legislature was a legislature and high court established in Iceland in the year 930 during the period of the Icelandic Commonwealth.

Scandinavian law, also known as Nordic law, is the law of the five Nordic countries, namely Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. It is generally regarded as a subgroup of civil law or as an individual legal body in itself. Prior to the 19th century, the European countries were independent in their administering and legality. However, in 1872, the Nordic countries organised legislative cooperation. Especially in areas of contracts and commerce, as well as those concerned with family, nationality and extradition, the five states have obtained uniform legislation.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

v t e Legislative assemblies of Iceland (and years)
1st (1875) 2nd (1877) 3rd (1879) 4th (1881) 5th (1883) 6th (1885) 7th (1886) 8th (1887) 9th (1889) 10th (1891) 11th (1893) 12th (1894) 13th (1895) 14th (1897) 15th (1899)
16th (1901) 17th (1902) 18th (1903) 19th (1905) 20th (1907) 21st (1909) 22nd (1911) 23rd (1912) 24th (1913) 25th (1914) 26th (1915) 27th (1916) 28th (1917) 29th (1918) 30th (1918)
31st (1919) 32nd (1920) 33rd (1921) 34th (1922) 35th (1923) 36th (1924) 37th (1925) 38th (1926) 39th (1927) 40th (1928) 41st (1929) 42nd (1930) 43rd (1931) 44th (1931) 45th (1932)
46th (1933) 47th (1933) 48th (1934) 49th (1935) 50th (1936) 51st (1937) 52nd (1937) 53rd (1938) 54th (1939) 55th (1940) 56th (1941) 57th (1941) 58th (1941) 59th (1942) 60th (1942)
61st (1942) 62nd (1943) 63rd (1944) 64th (1945) 65th (1946) 66th (1946) 67th (1947) 68th (1948) 69th (1949) 70th (1950) 71st (1951) 72nd (1952) 73rd (1953) 74th (1954) 75th (1955)
76th (1956) 77th (1957) 78th (1958) 79th (1959) 80th (1959) 81st (1960) 82nd (1961) 83rd (1962) 84th (1963) 85th (1964) 86th (1965) 87th (1966) 88th (1967) 89th (1968) 90th (1969)
91st (1970) 92nd (1971) 93rd (1972) 94th (1973) 95th (1974) 96th (1974) 97th (1975) 98th (1976) 99th (1977) 100th (1978) 101st (1979) 102nd (1979) 103rd (1980) 104th (1981) 105th (1982)
106th (1983) 107th (1984) 108th (1985) 109th (1986) 110th (1987) 111th (1988) 112th (1989) 113th (1990) 114th (1991) 115th (1991) 116th (1992) 117th (1993) 118th (1994) 119th (1995) 120th (1995)
121st (1996) 122nd (1997) 123rd (1998) 124th (1999) 125th (1999) 126th (2000) 127th (2001) 128th (2002) 129th (2003) 130th (2003) 131st (2004) 132nd (2005) 133rd (2006) 134th (2007) 135th (2007)
136th (2008) 137th (2009) 138th (2009) 139th (2010) 140th (2011) 141st (2012) 142nd (2013) 143rd (2013) 144th (2014) 145th (2015) 146th (2016) 147th (2017) 148th (2017) 149th (2018) 150th (2019)
151st (2020) 152nd (2021) 153rd (2022)

List of parliaments of Iceland

Contents

Historical overview

Parliament as a consultative assembly (1845–1873)

Parliament as a legislature (1875–present)

Related Research Articles