School of Law researcher secures ESRC funding to improve family justice in cross-border parental child-abduction cases
Dr Yaqub has secured £15,000 to explore how the interaction between criminal and family law in cross-border child-abduction cases affects children and families in practice.
Dr Nazia Yaqub has been awarded £15,000 through the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account to develop a project addressing a growing but often hidden issue in cross-border family justice: the criminal prosecution of parents, most commonly mothers fleeing domestic abuse, who take a child across international borders while family courts simultaneously consider child return proceedings.
These parallel legal processes can expose children and families to repeated harm and prolonged uncertainty. Yet many of the relevant criminal cases are decided in lower courts and are therefore absent from published law reports, meaning that key information is often invisible to judges, lawyers, and policymakers involved in family proceedings.
The project will translate Dr Yaqub’s existing research into practical impact through two core outputs:
- An open-access online database, hosted by the University of Leeds, bringing previously inaccessible criminal-law case information into view for judges handling Hague Abduction Convention proceedings, as well as lawyers and government representatives working across states in Central Authorities; and
- A policy report, developed in collaboration with international policy partners, to support more coherent, child-centred justice across borders.
Working with partners including the European Commission and the European Parliament, the project will strengthen cross-border cooperation and position the University of Leeds as a leader in policy-engaged socio-legal research on children’s rights and family justice.
Dr Yaqub says:
This funding allows us to make visible cases heard in the lower criminal courts that are currently hidden from view, despite having profound consequences for children and families.
By bringing criminal and family law information together in one accessible place, the project aims to improve justice pathways by ensuring that legal systems speak to one another, rather than operating in isolation.
She adds:
I am delighted to be working with European policy partners to translate research into practical tools that support more informed, child centred decision making in cross border cases.
Dr Yaqub is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Centre for Law and Social Justice and the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies. You can find her on Bluesky @Drnazia-yaqub and on LinkedIn here.
