Dr Nazia Yaqub

Profile

Before joining the University in 2023, I spent several years in legal practice. I am a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales (non-practising) and represented clients in the areas of Prison Law, Crime, Mental Health, Family and Children’s law. After crossing to academia, I completed my PhD research at the University of Liverpool and have since taught Family Law, Children’s Rights, Criminal Law and Contract Law. During this time, I have also held visiting academic posts at Otago (New Zealand) and Antwerp (Belgium), completed a post-graduate teaching diploma and became a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

Research interests

My research interests span the fields of international human rights law, with a particular focus on the rights of children and gender justice. I have published in the area of child rights, family law, law and religion, law and intersectionality, belongingness theory, and international human rights law.

My recent research in the area of Private International Law examines the operation of the Hague Convention on cross-border parental child abduction. The project provides the first-ever empirical investigation of the legal and regulatory framework responding to cases of parental child abduction to Islamic law countries from the UK, explored through child rights theory. I am also engaged with collaborative projects in the area of children’s rights; examining the rights of children whose parents the state seeks to deport, and a further project which seeks to develop a child-friendly version of the 1980 Hague Convention.

I am also interested in the relationship between child rights and Islamic legal theory. As part of this work, I examine child protection and adoption laws in the UK and undertake research on alternative care placements for children of Muslim heritage and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. In a further project, I examine the theoretical perspectives of Islamic inheritance law to explore the extent to which Muslim personal laws are accommodated within English law, and how Muslims living in the UK navigate the complex differences between the two legal frameworks.

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://essl.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

• PhD
• Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching HE
• Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Legal Practice
• LLM
• LLB

Professional memberships

• Society of Legal Scholars
• Socio-Legal Scholars' Association
• Fellow of Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Authority)
• Solicitors Regulation Authority

Student education

I currently teach Family Law and Contract Law. I also supervise undergraduate and LLM dissertations across my teaching and research areas.

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Criminal Justice Studies
• Centre for Law and Social Justice

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>The school welcomes enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>