Gustav Smedal was a Norwegian jurist and irredentist activist.

He was known for his activism in the so-called "Greenland case", where Norway claimed a part of Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

. In 1931 a Norwegian expedition occupied a portion of East Greenland, naming it Erik the Red's Land

Erik the Red's Land

Erik the Red's Land was the name given by Norwegians to an area on the coast of eastern Greenland occupied by Norway in the early 1930s. It was named after Erik the Red, the founder of the first Norse settlements in Greenland in the 10th century...

. Following a Permanent Court of International Justice

Permanent Court of International Justice

The Permanent Court of International Justice, often called the World Court, was an international court attached to the League of Nations. Created in 1922 , the Court was initially met with a good reaction from states and academics alike, with many cases submitted to it for its first decade of...

 ruling in 1933, in the disfavor of Norway, the official claims were abandoned, but Smedal continued his activism.

A nationalist, Smedal would find himself collaborating with the national socialist regime during the German occupation of Norway. He enrolled in Nasjonal Samling, at that time the only legal party, in 1942, but never worked directly for the party. Wishing to create ties between Smedal and the party, the regime offered him positions as law professor, Supreme Court

Supreme Court of Norway

The Supreme Court of Norway was established in 1815 on the basis of the Constitution of Norway's §88, prescribing an independent judiciary. It is located in Oslo and is Norway's highest court...

 Justice and even Chief of the Supreme Court. Smedal, being economically independent, only accepted a position as honorary professor in 1943. Instead, he was active in the organization Norges Ishavskomité together with another prominent Nazi Adolf Hoel

Adolf Hoel

Adolf Hoel was a Norwegian geologist and polar researcher. He was the leading Norwegian researcher at Svalbard in the early 20th century, and in 1928 founded Norges Svalbard- og Ishavsundersøkelser, which became the Norwegian Polar Institute in 1948. The mineral hoelite is named in his honour...

. Smedal published several articles and pamphlettes to strengthen a Norwegian claim to Greenland, which in the meantime (1941) had been occupied by the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. He tried to persuade Reichskommissar

Reichskommissar

Reichskommissar , in German history, was an official gubernatorial title used for various public offices during the period of the German Empire and the Nazi Third Reich....

 Josef Terboven

Josef Terboven

Josef Antonius Heinrich Terboven was a Nazi leader, best known as the Reichskommissar during the German occupation of Norway.-Early life:...

 and others, but nothing happened.

As part of the legal purge in Norway after World War II

Legal purge in Norway after World War II

When the occupation of Norway ended in May 1945, several thousand Norwegians and foreign citizens were tried and convicted for various acts that the occupying powers sanctioned...

, Smedal was punished economically for his collaboration.