Sophie Harleman is working as a PhD Candidate for both the Montaigne Centre for Rule of Law and Administration of Justice and the Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology. Her research is about 'Intelligence and Law'. It particularly concerns the relationship between active cyber defence, (national) security and fundamental rights in the intelligence domain. Her supervisors are prof. dr. J.J. Oerlemans and prof. dr. C.M.J. Ryngaert. 

In 2019, Sophie obtained her LLM in Law & Technology at Tilburg University. In 2020, she obtained her LLM in Constitutional and Administrative Law at the University of Amsterdam (cum laude).