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. In 2012 Numhauser-Henning initiated the Norma Elder Law Research Environment as part of the Norma Research Programme (www.jur.lu.se/elderlaw). The Elder Law Research Environment now encompasses about 15 researchers and a broad range of legal prspectives on ageing organised into three focus areas: Legal Empowerment of Elderly Workers, Legal Empowerment of Elderly Citizens and Legal Empowerment of Elderly Migrants. In this research environment different aspects of the legal conditions of ageing are studied in depth and on a long-term basis in order to merge into a deeper body of knowledge about ageing people's legal position in society with a focus on national aw and EU law, but also in a comparatve setting.
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 a number of 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, Hart Publishing, etc. 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.)