Born in 1948; studied in Tübingen, Munich and Geneva; after scientific research work in London obtained a doctor’s degree in Law at Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich; Judge at Oldenburg Labour Court; habilitation at Bremen University with venia legendi for the fields of Labour Law, Legal Sociology and Social Law; Professor by proxy in the study programme Judicial Training at Bremen University and in the Faculty of Law of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University at Frankfurt am Main; President of the State Labour Court of Schleswig-Holstein (1989-2000); collaboration as Experienced Manager in Institutional Building in the project of the European Expertise Service (EU) on the Reform of Labour Law and its Institutional Framework in Kyrgyzstan (1994/95); Honorary Professor at Bremen University for the subject of „Labour Law, with particular emphasis on European Labour Law“; Judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union (2000-2006); Co-Dean of the China-EU School of Law in Beijing (2008-2011); since then, working free-lance.