If works are nominated from the Faroe Islands, Greenland or the Sami language area, representatives from these areas become co-opted members on the Adjudication Committee.

The Adjudication Committee's ordinary members and a substitute from each country are appointed for four years at a time. They must be experts in the literature of their own country and as far as possible also in the literature of their neighbouring countries.

The two ordinary members along with the substitute for each country make up the national Adjudication Committee.

The Nordic Adjudication Committee makes their decision based on a simple majority. All participating countries must be represented before the Committee can make its decision. If the number of votes for the prize is equal it must be decided by lot.

No later than two weeks before the award ceremony the committee must announce the winner of the literature prize and justify their decision. It is the current practice that the Adjudication Committee meets every year at the end of January and immediately thereafter announces who has won this year's Nordic Council Literature Prize.