Sophia Schroeder

Key information

PhD Title: The Role of Domestic Courts in Consociational Systems of Power-Sharing

• MA in Conflict Resolution in Divided Societies (King’s College London, 2018)
• LLM (King’s College London, 2015)
• Maîtrise en Droit in International Law (Panthéon-Assas University/Paris II, 2014)
• German First State Examination (Humboldt University of Berlin, 2014)
• sophia [dot] schroeder [dot] 19 [at] ucl.ac.uk

Sophia joined the Faculty of Laws and the Judicial Institute in October 2020. Her research focuses on the role of domestic courts in consociational systems of power-sharing and involves data collection through interviewing in Northern Ireland and Lebanon. She seeks to understand how courts react to consociations and the implications of their judgments for the broader political set-up. Her research is supported with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Funds for Women Graduates and the Modern Law Review.

Sophia is currently a Visiting Doctoral Student at Queen’s University Belfast (School of Law) and will start as a Doctoral Fellow at the Orient-Institut Beirut in May 2022.

Alongside her PhD, Sophia has taught on the Laws’ Connections module (Law and Homelessness), acted as an academic mentor for LLB students and served as a PhD representative at the Faculty of Laws. She also designed and taught an interdisciplinary course on her PhD topic for a mentorship programme, and coached LLM students at King’s College London for the international law and diplomacy competition ‘Day of Crisis’ (2018-2021). In addition, she was a Kathryn Davis Fellow for Peace at Middlebury College (Arabic) in 2021.

Prior to joining UCL, Sophia worked for the German federal civil service. Other professional experience includes internships with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin, the Legal Service of the German-Arab Chamber of Commerce in Cairo, and the European Parliament in Brussels.

In the past, Sophia volunteered with Refugee Legal Support London/Athens and supported ‘Sama Women's Health’ NGO with research on compensation mechanisms in clinical trials, among other things.

Research Supervisors

• Professor Cheryl Thomas QC (Hon) 

• Dr Sherrill Stroschein

Areas of Expertise

Comparative Constitutional Law, Judicial Studies, Public International Law, Human Rights Law, Refugee Law, German Public Law, European Law

Research Interests

Judicial Decision-Making, Constitutional Law, Equality Law, Law and Society, Divided Societies, Sectarianism, Consociationalism

UCL Associations/Academic and Professional Memberships

• Society of Legal Scholars
• Socio-Legal Studies Association

Publications

• Sophia Schroeder, 'The UN terrorist blacklisting regime persists, despite ongoing criticism of its opaque procedure', Grundundmenschenrechtsblog, 23 Mar '17, available at: http://grundundmenschenrechtsblog.de/the-un-terrorist-blacklisting-regim...
• Principal researcher on chapter about Germany, 'Compensation in Clinical Trials – A Comparative Analysis of Seven Countries, Sama Publication, New Delhi, 12/2016 (printed version only).