«Svalbard and Jan Mayen are two distinct dependencies of Norway, put here together according to the ISO-3166.

Until 1995 Jan Mayen and Svalbard were governed by the Sysselmann (Governor) of Svalbard. Maybe this is the reason why they share an ISO-code. From August 1994 the administration of Jan Mayen was taken over by the Fylkesmann (County Governor) of Nordland. As others have noted, Jan Mayen has permanently staffed defence and meteorological stations.

Jan Mayen is an integral part of the Kingdom of Norway, just like Svalbard is. Consequently, neither are dependencies in the usual sense of that term. The only Norwegian dependencies are Bouvet Island, Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land. All three dependencies are situated in Antarctica and have no permanent inhabitants.»

Source: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/sj.html but with my corrections.

Since 1929 Jan Mayen is a part of the Kingdom of Norway according to law No. 2 of Feb. 27th 1939 § 1. The legal basement is therefor the same both for Jan Mayen and Svalbard, contrary to the Antarctic territories which are bilands according to law No. 3 of Feb. 27th 1930. The Svalbard treaty is not including Jan Mayen, and therefor Norwegian authority may be practiced in Jan Mayen without the limitations the treaty is giving. The fact that Jan Mayen is a part of the kingdom is resulting that treaties Norway is signing also are valid according to Jan Mayen unless there are made reservations when ratifying them.

The Station Commander of Jan Mayen is both the highest civil and military official on the island. She or he has a limited police authority, but the island is a part of Salten police district administrated from the city of Bodø, capital in the county of Nordland.

The main reason Jan Mayen is administrated from Nordland (it is not a part of Nordland county) since the airplanes and post supplies come from Bodø airport. Earlier it was run from Troms county, then because the meteorological station was a part of the Weather office in Tromsø. (The Jan Mayen postcode has therefor changed.)

Jan

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Smaardijk [mailto:smaardijk@...]
Sent: 14. september 2002 17:49

Jan wrote:
"(...)Svalbard is consisting of Spitzbergen, the adjacent islands,
Bjørnøya Is. and Hopen Is., but Jan Mayen Is. is not belonging to the
Svalbard treaty (in force from Aug. 14th 1925 - text (Norwegian only:

>

href="http://www.lovdata.no/all/tl-19200209-000-0.html" target=_blank>http://www.lovdata.no/all/tl-19200209-000-0.html ) and is therefor a
part of Schengen. (...)"

I always thought that Jan Mayen was formally part of Svalbard,
notwithstanding the fact that it is not included in the Svalbard
treaty, but that it is (at least nominally) governed by the sysselman
of Svalbard. But it might be old or just wrong information I have. So,
territorially, what is the status of Jan Mayen? Is it in any way
incorporated (municipality, county, something else) or does it fall
directly under the Norwegian state?

B.t.w., strange that for ISO the two do belong together: SJ (Svalbard &
Jan Mayen)