Pernilla Leviner
Contact
Name and title: Pernilla Leviner
Phone: +468163289
Workplace: Department of Law Länk till annan webbplats.
Visiting address Room C830Universitetsvägen 10 C
Postal address Juridiska institutionen106 91 Stockholm
About me
I am a professor of public law with a special focus on social law and children's law.
My research and teaching deals with issues relating to the relationship between the state, the family and the individual, often with a focus on the authorities' responsibility and authority to create good living conditions for people in need of support and help. In my research I have among other things focused on the Swedish child protection system.
Leadership
Since October 2025, I am Dean of the Faculty of Law. The role of dean includes, together with vice-deans and leadership of the Department of Law, responsibility for research and education at the faculty. I am chairman of the Board of the Faculty of Law and also a member of a number of committees and decision-making bodies at Stockholm University.
Research groups
As a researcher I am affiliated with the Centre for Child Rights at and the public law research group at. I am also part of several interdisciplinary research groups, including through the Forte-funded project focused on child protection and research networks in Sweden and internationally.
Editorship
I am the editor of the Stockholm Studies in Child Law and Children's Rights, which is published in collaboration with Brill Nijhoff, and together with colleagues also editor of the Nordic Social Law Journal (Nordisk socialrättslig tidskrift).
Academic background
I received my PhD in 2011 at the Department of Law, Stockholm University. Here I have also been promoted to associate professor (2014) and professor (2020).
For a year and a half (2012-2013) I was a visiting researcher at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia and in 2016 I was a visiting researcher at Oxford University, the Institute for European and Comparative Law and an Associate Member at Exeter College.
Awards and prizes
- Honorary doctor at the Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, March 2026
- The Emil Heijne Foundation's Award for valuable contributions to legal research", December 2022
- The Royal Seraphim Medal – HM. Konungens medalj, 8:e storleken i Serafimerordens band, June 2022
Academic positions of trust at Stockholm University (in selection)
- Dean, Faculty of Law, Stockholm University, October 2025 -
- Vice Dean, Faculty of Law, Stockholm University, January 2024-June 2025
- Director of the Stockholm Centre for the Rights och the Child, Stockholm University, 2019–2025 (Deputy Director 2013–2019)
- Vice Chair and member of the Research Committee of the Faculty of Law, 2021–2023
- Member of the Board of Stockholm University Brain Imaging Centre (SUBIC) 2018–2023
- Chairman of the Foundation of 28 October 1982, Faculty of Law, Stockholm University, 2018–2023 (Vice Chairman 2015–2017)
- Member of the Faculty Board of the Faculty of Law, 2015–2020
External positions of trust (in selection)
- Board member Radiohjälpen, 2024 -
- Member of the jury for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, Alma Prize, 2024 -
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board, Swedish National Board of Institutional Care (SiS), 2024-2026
- Member of the Advisory Board in the research project Youth Climate Justice – child friendly justice for the climate crisis, funded by the European Research Council, Horizon 2020, 2023 and until further notice
- Member of the Advisory Board, LLM Programme Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights, Faculty of Law, Leiden University, 2018-2026
- Member of the Swedish Research Council's review panel within HS-D: Law, Criminology, Philosophy and Ethics, 2020–2022
- Recurring expert, opponent and examining committee assignments at higher education institutions in Sweden, the Nordic countries and Europe
- Recurring reviewer for research councils in Sweden and the Nordic countries as well as peer-reviewer in national and international scientific journals
My teaching has mainly been focused on public law, family law and children's law. At PhD-level, I have also taught legal theory and method. Currently, together with colleagues, I am course director for the advanced course Children's Rights and the doctoral course Creativity, Strategy and Ethics. I supervise several PhD students and supervise and examine student thesis in the law program students. I also regularly lecture for practitioners in, for example, social services, police, courts and lawyers.
My research interests lie within and across the fields of public and family law – more specifically child law and social welfare law. It deals with different aspects of the relation between the state, the family and the individual. My core interest is the responsibility and authority of the welfare state to create good living conditions for people. From a legal perspective, this includes issues of realisation of and respect for human rights and freedoms – including the balance between different needs and interests – but also the meaning and significance of the principles and basic values of the rule of law and public law principles.
Although my research in its’ core is legal, I have often included material and methods from other fields of science and also included international legal comparisons. I have collaborated with researchers in both law and other scientific fields, such as social work, sociology and criminology from Sweden, the Nordic countries and internationally.
I have recently, together with colleagues, completed the project Treated like a child, funded by the Ragnar Söderberg Foundation, which deals with issues of discrimination against children and I am also involved in an interdisciplinary research project concerning children and young people in the child protection system.
As can be seen from my publication list I have written on legal aspects of child protection, poverty, the Swedish ban on corporal punishment, children's rights within the health care sector, the right to a fair trial from a child’s perspective, the role and function of courts in child protection cases, non-discrimination and equal treatment of children in the social welfare sector, children’s right to participation through legal representatives. I have also focused on the UN Child Convention and its role and status in Swedish law.