Norway has ratified the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and other Scientific Purposes (ETS 123) issued by the Council of Europe. ETS 123 can be found on a webpage with a collection of all the Conventions issued by the Council. Norway was part of the first group of countries that signed the Convention on 18 March 1986, and was the first country that ratified it, on 9 July 1986 (Norwegian version). ETS 170 introduced a requirement for multilateral consultations every 5 years (or more often if a majority requested it). A Multilateral Consultation concerning interpretation of some of its contents was held in November 1992, and among other things it was decided that insertion of a needle should be regarded as a regulated procedure.

In June 2006 the Council agreed to make significant changes to Appendix A of the Convention (guidance on accommodation and care of research animals). The changes took effect on 15 June 2007 and contained specific guidance for different species or groups of species.

The original version of Appendix A (available here, together with the original convention text) contained guidance on acclimatisation times for individual species (Table 2, page 26), which was not carried into the new version. An overview of the most important changes can be read here in Norwegian (the old version of the Appendix, without its Tables and Figures, can be read here in Norwegian).

Norway has also transposed EU's Directive 2010/63.