Sonja Karlsson

Short presentation

Sonja Karlsson is a Doctoral Candidate in Public Law at the Department of Law at Uppsala university as well as at the Department of International and Operational Law at the Swedish Defence University. Her project is about state benefits during war and danger of war. The aim of the prohect is to investigate which legislation Sweden has in the area today, compare the Swedish regulations with the ones in Finland and Norway and finally present suggestions of best practice.

Keywords

• preparedness
• resilience
• social security
• social insurance
• defence benefits
• war
• danger of war

Biography

Sonja Karlsson was awarded her Master of Laws (LL.M) degree from Lund University in 2017. She has thereafter gained practical experience in her roles as Asylum Case Officer, Law Clerk, Senior Enforcement Officer and County Counsel. She started her PhD in 2024.

Besides law, Sonja Karlsson has sudied Japanese and spent a semester abroad at Fukuoka Women's University in Japan, where she successfully completed "The World of Japanese Contemporary Culture Program". During the law programme she spent another semester abroad studying Chinese law at the China University of Political Science and Law. She has also participated in the "Executive Summer School in Social Security" at KU Leuven, which granted her a postgraduate certificate in European Social Security.

Research

Sonja Karlsson is currently the Chair of the Doctoral Council of Law at Uppsala University, and therefore also the PhD Representative in the Research Council of the Faculty of Law at Uppsala university. She is also the PhD Representative in the Working Group for Equal Opportunities since 2025.

Earlier she has had the role of Vice Chair of the Doctoral Council of Law and was therefore also the PhD Representative in the Faculty of Law's Faculty Board.

Sonja Karlsson has presented her research on the following occasions:

2026         

Foundation for International Studies on Social Security’s 32nd International Research Seminar on Issues in Social Security, Sigtuna

Nordic Conference in Constitutional Law, Oslo            

Today’s Emergencies and Wars: a Challenge to International Law and Constitutional Frameworks, Uppsala

Society for Women Researchers in Uppsala’s “Kvinnomaraton 2026”, Uppsala

2025         

The Ragnar Söderberg Foundation, Stockholm

Baltic University Programme PhD Students Training, Uppsala

Nordisk Forvaltningsretligt Seminarium, Copenhagen

Centre for Societal Security, Stockholm

The Social Insurance Ombudsman, Stockholm

Reference Group for the project A Cohesive Approach to Legal Readiness for Peacetime Crises, High Alert Events, and War, Uppsala

The Guild Law Doctoral Workshop, Barcelona

2024          

Network Meeting for the Crisis Law Network, Gothenburg