[1] His father was Admiralty Chamberlain and later General War Commissary Carl Johan Schlyter and his mother was Lovisa Maria Hjelm.

[2] He received a private education and after graduating in 1807, Schlyter continued his studies at Lund University under the supervision of his brother-in-law, adjunct (later bishop) Wilhelm Faxe [sv].

[3] In 1814, he received his magister degree in Rostock, Germany, and in 1816 he was appointed by Professor (and mentor) Johan Holmbergson [sv] as docent in criminal law at Lund University.

[3] In 1818 he received his juris utriusque there, received his licentiate in law in 1820 and doctorate in law in the same year (a rare degree at the time, in which Schlyter and Hans Samuel Collin [sv] were the first to take the juris doktor there from the founding of Lund University until the end of the 19th century).

[5] In order to pursue a career in the civil service, Schlyter moved to Stockholm the same year, where he served in the Chancellor of Justice's Office and the Svea Court of Appeal from 1820 to 1822.

In 1822 a new field opened up for him, when, with the encouragement of Johan Gabriel Richert, he was awarded the Royal Majesty's commission to publish Sweden's old laws together with Collin.

In conjunction with this assignment, Schlyter applied for and was granted an unpaid professorship at Lund University in 1822, a position he held until 1835.

When the Swedish Academy celebrated its centenary in 1886, it awarded Schlyter one of two major gold medals minted for the occasion (the other went to Zachris Topelius).

[5][17] Veterinarian Hjalmar Kinberg was his nephew, and his grandson, Karl Schlyter (son of Gustaf Ragnar), was a lawyer and minister of justice.