LLM in Maritime Law, University of Southampton (2013)
Master of Laws, University of Oslo (2014)
PhD in Law, University of Oslo (2020)

Henriette N. Tøssebro was appointed Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law in the autumn of 2024. She defended her PhD in 2020 in general administrative law and subsequently worked as a deputy judge from 2020 to 2022, and later as a lawyer for the Bergen Municipal Attorney’s Office from 2022 to 2024. She has previously served as a member of the Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics South-East and the Immigration Appeals Board.

From 2014 to 2015, she was affiliated with the Department of Public and International Law as a research assistant, where she authored a 60-credit thesis on the criminal law reservation of illegality (later published as a book by Fagbokforlaget). She also has experience from the Norwegian Ministry of Justice’s Legislation Department (consultant for the Committee on the Legal Profession Act in 2014 and the Victim Compensation Committee in 2016), Oslo District Court (consultant from 2008 to 2012), and Juss-Buss (legal advisor from 2009 to 2010).

Tøssebro is interested in conceptual legal research. Through her analysis of the concept of invalidity in administrative law, she distinguished nullities from the terminology of invalidity, clarifying the difference between the content and effects of the invalidity concept in the anthology Invalidity in Administrative Law (Ugyldighet i forvaltningsretten), for which she served as sole editor. This distinction is further elaborated in her doctoral dissertation Administrative reversal (Omgjøring), which examines grounds for invalidity, such as subsequent factual circumstances, errors in legal interpretation, and evidentiary issues. Her book on the criminal law reservation of illegality (Rettsstrid) delineates the considerations courts take into account when exempting conduct from criminal liability despite statutory wording suggesting punishment. Already as a student, she co-authored two scientific articles in criminal law with Professor Alf Petter Høgberg, which later became part of the curriculum literature for the criminal law course at the University of Oslo.

Tøssebro is a co-author of the textbook General Administrative Law (Alminnelig forvaltningsrett ) with professor Hans Petter Graver. She is also a co-author of Forvaltningsloven on Gyldendal Rettsdata, alongside Professor Emeritus Jan Fridthjof Bernt.

She is also the project leader for the research initiative EXPUN, which addresses challenges in the current criminal justice system. The project is funded by the Research Council of Norway.

Editorial roles
Chief editor of the Norwegian journal Critical Legal Studies (Kritisk juss).

Visiting research stays
Universität Leipzig, Germany, 2016
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France, 2017
Aarhus University, Denmark, 2017
Uppsala University and Lund University, Sweden, 2018

Tøssebro gives external lectures and presentations. She has presented for the Legislation Department; the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation; the Directorate of Agriculture; the Environmental Directorate; the Norwegian Food Safety Authority; and at conferences such as the County Governor Conference, the Legal Practitioners’ Congress, and refresher courses in administrative law for JUS.

Tøssebro is the course coordinator for EXE682 Europeanization of Administrative Law (Forvaltningsrettens europeisering) in the Executive Master’s Program in Public Administration (Erfaringsbasert master i offentlig forvaltning) and teaches JUS345 (Criminal Law). She has previously taught JUS2111 (Constitutional Law), JUS2211 (Administrative Law), and JUS4111 (Legal Methodology) at the University of Oslo.

Students seeking advice on their master’s thesis writing process can contact her by email, attaching a problem outline. Students planning to write a 60-credit thesis are given priority.

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.