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Ingunn Elise Myklebust
Photo: Eivind Senneset

Ingunn Elise Myklebust

Position

Professor

Affiliation

E-mail
ingunn.myklebust@uib.no
Phone number
+47 55589562
Visitor address
Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1
5010 Bergen
Postal address
P.O. Box 7806
NO-5020 Bergen
Norway

Ingunn Elise Myklebust

Position

Professor

Affiliation

Research groups

Research

Professor Ingunn Elise Myklebust has broad expertise in both administrative law and property law, with particular emphasis on municipal law, planning and building law, and aquaculture governance.

Professor Myklebust is the leader of Theme Pillar II at the COAST Law Center at the Faculty of Law, where she leads research on the interaction between the sea and the coast in environmental and resource governance. In addition, Myklebust is a member of the Faculty’s research group in administrative law and is affiliated with the Centre for Sustainable Area Management (CeSAM), a University of Bergen initiative supporting sustainable land and marine use, biodiversity, and nature conservation, and with the Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation (CET), an interdisciplinary research group at UiB focusing on climate and energy transition. Myklebust is also a member of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences (NTVA).

Myklebust coordinates the elective courses Planning and Coastal Zone Management (5th year) and Environmental Law (3rd year), and teaches and coordinates Property Law and Intellectual Property Law, a compulsory first-year course in the law programme. Her teaching and supervision also include final-year law students writing master’s theses on related topics. Currently, she supervises PhD candidate Jannike Østlid, who is writing a dissertation on "property rights" as a means of governance at the University of Bergen; and PhD candidate Karen Tora Hjelmervik Nerbø, who is writing a dissertation on "cumulative impact" at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo.

Professor Myklebust has served on several legislative committees and contributed to a number of major governmental inquiries. Her recent work includes academic responsibility for a report commissioned by the Ministry of Climate and Environment, the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, entitled Alternative Approaches to Introducing a Ban on Development on Peatlands, carried out together with postdoc Siv Elén Vedvik (2025); leadership of the report on the relationship between the Traffic Light System and the Quality Standard for Wild Salmon (2024); member of the  Land Use Neutrality Committee (2026), Cultural Environment Law Committee (2025), participating in an expert committee on ministerial disqualification (2023), and contributing to reports on legislative changes under the Planning and Building Act, including Investigation of causes of high time use in planning cases and proposals for more efficient processes (2025).

Myklebust is currently involved in several interdisciplinary research projects on land use and coastal zone governance. These include ECOBUDGETS (2025-2029), which examines how climate and nature budgets can be integrated into administrative and political decision-making at the municipal and county levels, as well as several projects funded by the Norwegian Seafood Research Fund (FHF) on the development of regulatory frameworks for aquaculture. These projects include RIFT – Regulatory frameworks that hinder the implementation of new technologies and operational models in the aquaculture industry (2025–2027), an interdisciplinary project in law and biology;  HAVBRUKSLØFTET - Innovation through collaboration and synthesis of knowledge from industry, authorities, and research (2025–2027); and HAVREG  – Implications of regulatory models for the Norwegian aquaculture industry and society (2025–2027). Earlier projects include GOVLAND  (2018–2022), led by Myklebust, and PLANCOAST (2018–2022). 

Background

Myklebust has a PhD from 2009, with the topic "Coastal Law and Public Governance of Land Use at Sea", which was published at Universitetsforlaget in 2010. The book discusses property rights and the coastal owner’s right to e.g. land reclamation, access by boat, salmon fishing, views, and protection against noise. The main theme of the book is what kind of protection such rights, based on old customs, have for new uses based on public licences, such as aquaculture, wind power, marinas, and organised tourism.

Professor Myklebust has held several positions in Bergen municipality, both as a legal adviser in the building department and the City council department for environment and urban development, where she was also head of section (1998–2000). She is also a licensed attorney at law and has worked at the municipal attorney in Bergen (2010–2011) and brought cases to court both on real estate law, labour law, and child protection law.

Myklebust has also held a part-time position at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences for several periods to help develop master's courses in property, land consolidation and planning law in addition to teach such courses on a new master's degree programme there. Myklebust has also taught planning law at Volda University College.

Outreach

She has also been an active oral communicator and participant in public debate on legal issues through lectures and presentations for a wide range of audiences – from academic seminars to municipalities, public authorities, and interest organisations. Through this work, she has contributed to making legal questions accessible and to shaping public understanding of the law. An overview of this activity is also available through her registrations in NVA.

Teaching

Myklebust’s professional interests are land management law, municipal law, expropriation law, property law (including real estate law), natural resource and environmental law. Myklebust also has course responsibility in property law, municipal law and planning and building law at the Faculty of Law. Her teaching duties are related to development, lectures, exams and other follow-up of these three courses. 

Publications

Academic article

Academic book chapter

Academic literature review

Academic monograph

Conference lecture

Conference poster

Doctoral thesis (PhD)

Editorial/Leader article

Journal review

Lecture

Letter to the editor

Media feature article

Media interview

Other presentation

Podcast

Professional article

Research report

Working paper

See a complete overview of publications in NVA.

Projects

Myklebust is currently involved in several interdisciplinary research projects on land use and coastal zone governance. These include ECOBUDGETS (2025-2029), which examines how climate and nature budgets can be integrated into administrative and political decision-making at the municipal and county levels, as well as several projects funded by the Norwegian Seafood Research Fund (FHF) on the development of regulatory frameworks for aquaculture. These projects include RIFT – Regulatory frameworks that hinder the implementation of new technologies and operational models in the aquaculture industry (2025–2027), an interdisciplinary project in law and biology;  HAVBRUKSLØFTET - Innovation through collaboration and synthesis of knowledge from industry, authorities, and research (2025–2027); and HAVREG  – Implications of regulatory models for the Norwegian aquaculture industry and society (2025–2027). Earlier projects include GOVLAND  (2018–2022), led by Myklebust, and PLANCOAST (2018–2022).