Ann Numhauser-Henning started out her research career in 1984 with her doctoral thesis in Private Law (Labour Law) Tidsbegränsad anställning, En studie i anställningsformsregleringens samhälleliga funktioner [Temporary Employment: A Critical Study of the Swedish Regulations governing Categories of Employment and their Functions] (596 p.). For a limited period in her early career Numhauser-Henning’s research covered real property and family law as well. 1992-1994 Numhauser-Henning organised the Feminist Legal Seminar Series at the Law Faculty. Since the early nineties, she specialises in labour law, with an emphasis on flexibilisation of work and discrimination in employment. During the last decade, she has also taken a vivid interest in Social Welfare Law and especially the rights of migrant workers from a European integration perspective. Guided by her markedly internationally orientation from the start of her career, Numhauser-Henning held a number of prestigious assignments as international Swedish rapporteur to important international congresses. She was involved in research cooperation with Chile, Spain and Japan, resulting in a number of English, Spanish and Swedish publications. In 1996, Numhauser-Henning initiated the Norma Research Programme at the Law Faculty together with the late Prof. Anna Christensen. The Programme succeeded in securing generous funding (SEK 11 million) from the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation during its first four years. Numhauser-Henning has been the coordinator/head of the research programme since its inception. Norma is an acronym for ‘Normative Development within the Social Dimension, Studies on the Normative Patterns and Their Development in the Legal Regulation of Employment, Housing, Family and Social Security from a European Integration Perspective’. The programme also encompasses legal theory and comparative law. Relevant EU law and Human Rights Law is regularly included in all Norma projects. With strong comparative and European integration elements, Norma quickly established itself internationally as one of the most remarkable concerted research efforts within the discipline. The programme studies basic normative patterns and their development and relationship to the ongoing changes in society within the area of the Social Dimension in Europe in depth and from a long-term perspective. Research within Norma, as well as that of Numhauser-Henning herself, is characterised by an external, social science approach, and a structural/functionalist view on legal studies, based on the theory of law as normative patterns in a normative field combined with a functional approach, developed by Anna Christensen in cooperation with Numhauser-Henning. The Norma Research Programme has created a research environment unique to Swedish legal scholarship forming the first truly multi-disciplinary research milieu for a group of senior and younger researchers. Its outstanding performance and high standard of achievement is reflected in the number of sub-projects, evolved from the original programme, that have been awarded external funding and funding by (scarce) faculty resources in extremely competitive processes . It is also reflected in the high number of successful doctoral exams – eight out of some 50 in total at the Law Faculty during the covered period, all with Numhauser-Henning as the main supervisor. Many legal scholars have taken an interest in the Norma theoretical approach. The acceptance is also reflected in the great number of international invitations to participate in projects and conferences that the group is presented with continuously, as in the number of international publications. The 2008 Lund University Research Quality Evaluation RQ 08 specifically highlighted the critical contribution of the Norma Programme when awarding the highest score within the Faculty of Law to Private Law II (The Social Dimension). Numhauser-Henning’s work enjoys a particularly strong international standing within her core research areas Discrimination in Employment and Flexible Work. This is corroborated by her participation in three European Commission networks of distinguished legal experts, namely on Equality between men and women (initiated 2002 and ongoing), Training and reporting on the social rights of migrant workers (initiated 2002 and ongoing), Non-discrimination (2004–2007) and European Labour Law (member of the scientific committee since 2007). These are corporations of the most distinguished legal scientists throughout Europe, co-ordinated by the universities of Utrecht, Gent and Leiden, respectively, and financed by a series of successful contracts following Commission tenders (which is the standard mode of financing legal studies in an EU context). Numhauser-Henning has arranged international conferences with leading scholars resulting in a significant number of edited volumes published by Kluwer Law International. Moreover, she was accorded the role of European and General Rapporteur, respectively, to important international conferences of the International Organisation of Labour Law and Social Security Law in 2002 and 2006. (Photo by Ruona.)
Articles
Fixed-term Work in Nordic Labour Law, Scandinavian Studies in Law (2002)
The purpose of this article is to describe the regulation of fixed-term work and its...
Fixed-term work in Nordic labour law, The International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations (2002)
This article describes the regulation of fixed-term work and its most recent developments in Denmark,...
Flexible Qualification – a Key to Labour Law?, The International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and (2001)
This article argues that flexible knowledge (and thus continuous education) has the potential to out-date...
Books
Introduction to the Norma Elder Law Research Environment, Different Approaches to Elder Law (with Mia Rönnmar, Jenny Julén Votinius, Hanna Pettersson, Eva Ryrstedt, Titti Mattsson, Per Norberg, Mirjam Katzin, Emma Holm, and Martina Axmin) (2013)
Normative patterns and legal developments in the social dimension of the EU (with Mia Rönnmar) (2013)
This book explores the normative and legal evolution of the Social Dimension of the EU...
Fifteen Years with the Norma Research Programme (2010)
The Norma Research Programme started out fifteen years ago – in 1996 – at the...
Contributions to Books
Age Discrimination and Compulsory Retirement, Introduction to the Norma Elder Law Research Environment, Different Approaches to Elder Law (2013)
An Introduction to Elder Law and the Norma Elder Law Research Environment, Introduction to the Norma Elder Law Research Environment, Different Approaches to Elder Law (2013)
Introduction, Normative patterns and legal developments in the social dimension of the EU (2013)
This book explores the normative and legal evolution of the Social Dimension of the EU...
Understanding law as normative patterns in a normative field, Normative patterns and legal developments in the social dimension of the EU (2013)
This book explores the normative and legal evolution of the Social Dimension of the EU...