Anni Carlsson awarded the Stig Strömholm Prize

Anni Carlsson, Lecturer at the Department of International and Operational Law at the Swedish Defence University, has been awarded this year's Stig Strömholm Prize for Humanities-oriented Research in Law and Social Sciences.

Anni Carlsson receives this year’s Stig Strömholm Prize in recognition of her research contributions in the field of constitutional law. The prize was established by Uppsala University in 2021 and is awarded to early-career researchers active in the Nordic countries who have made outstanding contributions to humanistic legal and social science research.

The prize committee’s justification for choosing Anni Carlsson states:

"In our time, the boundaries of free speech and the forms for the democratic conversation are increasingly controlled by privately-owned, cross-border social media. In her thesis Constitutional Protection of Freedom of Expression in the Age of Social Media, Anni Carlsson investigates the intractable problems that the constitutional protection for freedom of expression faces in the new media landscape, and she does so with jurisprudential acumen and an exceptional stylistic ability. Attacking these problems from both a comparative law and a European law perspective, she has made a commendable study in particular of the Swedish tradition of freedom of expression in relation to ongoing international developments in media. Her study makes a very valuable contribution to our knowledge about an extremely dynamic area of the utmost importance for the democratic rule of law. She has thereby promoted law as a form of cultural expression in the spirit of Professor Stig Strömholm."

About the Stig Strömholm Prize

Stig Strömholm Prize for Humanities-oriented Research in Law and Social Sciences is named after Uppsala University’s former Vice-Chancellor and Professor Emeritus, Stig Strömholm. Its purpose is to recognise research that highlights the significance of law in society and deepens our understanding of law as an integral part of culture and social life.

The prize is awarded to researchers who obtained their doctoral degree within the past five years and whose research has promoted law as a cultural expression. The award will be presented during Uppsala University’s anniversary celebrations on 7 October 2026.