Research collaboration

We frequently collaborate with researchers from other countries. An important task is the coordination of the European Network of Legal Experts that informs the European Commission on the field of gender equality. Wendy Schrama is a member of the organising committee of FL-EUR, the network of 28 European family law experts established in 2019.

The GIRARE project (‘Gender Identity Registration And Human Rights Effects’) is an interdisciplinary collaboration with Gender Studies on personal law, which particularly focuses on personal data and, given the human rights developments in the field of transgender and intersex, the current question of whether, and if so how, gender ought to be registered.

We also frequently work together with the ACFL of the VU and the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in the Family & Law Alliance, with which the book series Family & Law and the forum/open access journal Family & Law are also related. In a wider international context we are part of Rethinkin; a partnership with family law professors from Belgium and the Netherlands.

Dynamics of Youth

Various researchers are involved in the strategic programs of Utrecht University. Wendy Schrama works on the project ‘Where do I belong’ (see Divorce) within the program ‘Dynamics of Youth’. Jet Tigchelaar and Merel Jonker are involved with the project ‘Youth got Talent’: a collaboration with social sciences and geosciences in which they conduct research into the wellbeing and social participation of young people with a low socio-economic status. From the legal perspective, the central question concerns how rules and regulations guarantee and stimulate the social participation and wellbeing of young people. Do they guarantee equality and inclusivity? And what do young people think of these rules?

UCERF is also closely associated with the Cambridge Family Law Centre and the International Association of Child Law Researchers (IACLaR). We work together in different compositions on a project basis.

We also collaborate with others to strengthen empirical research know-how. Together with colleagues from the Criminology department, we develop qualitative, ethnographic and visual research expertise. We connect phenomenon research with comparative law research to guarantee the link between legal reality and legal and enforcement practice. We are also able to quickly convert trends from society into state-of-the-art and socially relevant research.