Summary of the impact

The protection of children in international law requires clear rules identifying: the country in which disputes concerning children should be litigated (jurisdiction); which country's law should be applied to resolve those disputes (choice of law); and when effect should be given to the orders of foreign courts (recognition and enforcement). These Private International Law issues are central to the research highlighted in this Case Study, which has impacted upon:

• the implementation of an international convention, and drafting of an associated statutory instrument;
• the elaboration of judicial decisions;
• the uniform interpretation of international instruments at a global level through the INCADAT database; as well as
• the focus and content of judicial training.

Summary of the impact

Professor Geoff Gilbert's research on exclusion in international refugee law has influenced policies of international organisations and courts around the world. His research on extradition prompted the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to invite Gilbert to write the Global Consultation on exclusion, adopted in 2001 at the 50^th Anniversary meeting for the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. This Consultation directly influenced UNHCR's 2003 Guidelines on Exclusion that have been cited worldwide in hundreds of cases during the impact period. Canadian and German appellate courts have also favourably cited Gilbert's work directly.

Summary of the impact

A research programme led by Boyle in Edinburgh (with Birnie (LSE) and Redgwell (UCL)) pioneered the discipline of international environmental law. That work, in turn, informed the infrastructure for international environmental law in practice. Through Boyle's work as legal counsel in several high-profile international cases (2010-11), his proposed subject-paradigm has been translated from theory to legal framework. Crucially, it has been endorsed and applied by both the International Law Commission and relevant international courts, including the International Court of Justice.

Summary of the impact

Research conducted by Rieu-Clarke and Wouters has deepened knowledge and understanding of the role of international law in contributing to the peaceful management of the world's transboundary water resources amongst a range of stakeholders, including policy makers. The impact is manifested in invitations to high-level policy forums and engagement with policy makers at numerous training events. Additionally, several governments have ratified the UN Watercourses Convention (UNWC), in part due to their research, and their work has contributed to the imminent entry into force of the Convention.

Summary of the impact

Research undertaken by Barlow at Exeter into cohabitation, marriage and the law has shaped, informed and influenced long-running public and policy debates in Britain over the need to reform aspects of family (property) law, in light of widespread public confusion and on-going societal shifts. The research findings on attitudes to cohabitation and marriage, community of property and pre-nuptial agreements and the law, each cited in public consultation papers and reports advocating reform, have influenced the Law Commission and judiciary in the UK and informed German policymakers. The cohabitation research in particular has-

• shaped public information and legal advice;
• informed and stimulated high-profile law reform lobbying campaigns and media debates;
• strongly influenced Law Commission legislative proposals on cohabitant intestacy, and
• shaped national policy in use by government to oppose reform in parliamentary debates.

Summary of the impact

Professor Adrian Keane's research relates to the law of criminal evidence, that body of law which regulates the means by which facts can be proved in criminal trials. His publications on the subject have effected change and benefited the awareness, capacity, performance and understanding of the subject on the part of:

(i) the judiciary in the UK and internationally, in reaching decisions at both first instance and at appellate level; and in giving directions to juries on evidential issues that are as clear and consistent as possible

(ii) legal practitioners

(iii) law academics and students (an impact that extends significantly beyond the submitting higher education institution)

(iv) legislators in the People's Republic of China.

The most significant impact stems from participation in a project in Beijing that led directly to a revised Criminal Procedure Law that has improved the quality of the administration of Chinese criminal justice. Specifically, it has rendered criminal trials fairer to the accused and reduced the potential for miscarriages of justice, especially in relation to offences carrying the death penalty.

Summary of the impact

Much has been written about mental condition defences such as insanity and diminished responsibility together with the cognate doctrine of unfitness to plead. However, most of this work has been doctrinal rather than empirical. This case study has developed a sustained and continuing understanding of how certain mental condition defences operate in practice, primarily through empirical analysis. R.D. Mackay's empirical studies of both the insanity defence and unfitness to plead and his studies of diminished responsibility, provocation and infanticide have been used by and have influenced law reform bodies, legislators, policy development and legal analysis.

Summary of the impact

This case study concerns a book by Paul Beaumont and Peter McEleavy that was submitted in RAE 2001: The Hague Convention on International Child Abduction (Oxford University Press, 1999). The book has been cited by leading courts in Australia, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK and the USA as a leading authority on the interpretation of the Hague Child Abduction Convention 1980. The Convention was concluded in 1980 and as at 26 July 2013 is in force in 90 States. At the time the book was written there were 51 State parties to the Convention. As the only comprehensive monograph in English on the Convention, it seems reasonable to claim that it has assisted in widening its ratification. The Convention is one of the most successful private international law treaties in history and seeks to reduce the suffering caused by the wrongful removal/retention (the legal terms for abduction) of children away from the country of their habitual residence. In particular the book has helped to lead to judicial decisions favouring a wide interpretation of "custody rights" and a late date for "wrongful retention" thereby increasing the number of children covered by the Convention. These children will usually be returned by the authorities in the country to which they have been abducted to the country in which they were habitually resident before the abduction. The book has also helped judges in several countries to arrive at their decisions on the meaning of "settled" under Article 12 of the Convention preventing too many returns of children in cases where a summary return is not possible because the Convention return proceedings were not launched within one year of the abduction.

Summary of the impact

In 2010 the Ministry of Justice formally accepted recommendations by the Law Commission to introduce a new non-statutory rule of disclosure for trustee exemption clauses in England and Wales. Newcastle research had a direct impact upon the development of the law on trustee exemption clauses. In 2002 Dunn successfully tendered to undertake research on trustee exemption clauses in England and Wales on behalf of the Law Commission. Dunn's research was published by the Law Commission as a separate and distinct chapter of its consultation paper on trustee exemption clauses. The research (alongside consultation responses) influenced the Law Commission's recommendation that a non-statutory rule of disclosure be introduced into the law of England and Wales. This recommendation was accepted by the Government in 2010 and has been implemented by the trust industry.

Summary of the impact

This research has made a sustained and continuing impact on the development and application of the substantive criminal law, including mens rea and general defences, and especially in the areas of complicity and homicide, in terms of

i) development of the law by the appellate courts;

ii) application of the law by practitioners; and

iii) government policy as to the reform of the law of murder and complicity.