Ms Maria S Wright

Courts and Local Authorities in England and Wales are increasingly dealing with child protection cases with an international element. Issues will come in to play about the assessment of potential carers abroad, international co-operation between Local Authorities and the appropriate legal outcome for children. Tensions have arisen particularly in circumstances where children with international familial connections have been adopted in this country. 

My research seeks to examine how Courts and Local Authorities are working with children in international child protection cases, what challenges they face and how their practices could be modified to work more effectively in an international context. As a socio-legal study, my focus is on how instruments of private international law (Brussels IIa and the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention) operate in international child protection cases heard in England, and in particular whether they support and facilitate cross-border cases. My study is conducted in collaboration with Cafcass (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) and CFAB (Children and Families Across Borders, the UK branch of International Social Services). It is a mixed methods study, involving a quantitative analysis international child protection cases heard in England and qualitative interviews with professionals who encounter such cases.