Iulia Mirzac

Iulia Mirzac

Birmingham Law School
Doctoral researcher
Teaching Associate

Contact details

Email
ixm896@student.bham.ac.uk

Qualifications

  • MA Social Research, University of Birmingham (ESRC-funded)
  • MSc International Development University of Birmingham (Distinction)
  • BA Law & International Relations, Oxford Brookes University (First-Class Degree)

Biography

Iulia is a PhD Candidate conducting ESRC-funded research on judicial decision-making in trafficking-related victimhood adjudications. Her work examines ways in which gendered and racialised constructions of victimhood shape judicial reasoning along lines of perceived (non-)deservingness, thereby contributing to unequal outcomes in the courts.

Alongside her doctoral research, Iulia teaches Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Law at Oxford Brookes University and Decolonising Legal Concepts at Birmingham Law School. She is a Research Consultant at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, where she provides legal commentary on asylum decisions involving gender-based violence for publication in the Institute’s CUREDI database. In addition, Iulia has extensive experience in project management and student recruitment within higher education.

Doctoral research

PhD title
The ‘Ideal Trafficked Victim’: Exploring Judicial Perceptions of Victimhood and their Impact on Trafficking-related Adjudications in the UK
Supervisor
Dr Meghan Campbell

Research

Iulia is an interdisciplinary socio-legal scholar working at the intersection of law, gender studies, and behavioural science, with a particular focus on migration, refugee studies, and human trafficking. Iulia’s research is grounded in empirical legal studies and examines how legal rules, judicial reasoning, and institutional practices operate in practice, particularly in the adjudication of trafficking- and asylum-related claims. Drawing on feminist legal theory, intersectionality, and critical race theory, her work examines how gendered and racialised constructions of victimhood, credibility, and deservingness are produced and mobilised in judicial and administrative decision-making. A central aim of Iulia’s research is to challenge dominant frameworks in migration and trafficking studies that rely on reductive binaries such as victim versus offender, coercion versus consent, passivity versus agency, and to advance more nuanced, empirically informed accounts of how law governs marginalised populations in contemporary migration regimes.

Other activities

At Birmingham Law School, Iulia acted as the PGR Lead for the ‘Equality, Gender and Feminist Legal Studies’ Research Theme and is an active member of the ‘Violence, Crime and Justice’ Research Theme.

Iulia has presented her doctoral research at conferences and workshops within the UK and internationally, including:

  • Cultural and Religious Diversity under State Law across Europe’ (CUREDI) Annual Conference, Max Plack Institute for Social Anthropology, November 2025.
  • Migration and Societal Change’ Conference, Utrecht University, June 2025.
  • The Zero-Sum Game of Labour Exploitation’ Workshop, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, June 2025.
  • Evolving Compliance’ Compliance Net Annual Conference 2025, Fordham University School of Law, New York City.
  • Human Rights Law Workshop on Populism and Immigration’, Birmingham Law School, June 2024.
  • International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP) Academy and Annual Conference, Montreal 2023
  • MADEINEUROPE Summer School, European University for Well-Being (EUniWell), Nantes 2023.

Publications

  • Iulia Mirzac, ‘Strengthening the EU Anti-Discrimination Framework: The Directives on Minimum Standards for Equality Bodies’ (2025) Industrial Law Journal 1.

Book Chapters

  • Katia Bianchini and Iulia Mirzac, ‘Reflections on the Disjuncture between Forced Marriage in Asylum and Family Law Decisions in the UK’ in Eugenia Relaño Pastor and Marie-Claire Foblets (eds) ‘United in Diversity’: Legal Encounters with Cultural Plurality in the European Context (Routledge 2026, upcoming).
  • Katia Bianchini and Iulia Mirzac, ‘Article 4: Freedom of Religion’ in Tamás Molnár and Caia Vleiks (eds) Legal Commentary to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (Edward Elgar Publishing 2026, upcoming).
  • Katia Bianchini and Iulia Mirzac, ‘Article 7: Exemption from Reciprocity’ in Tamás Molnár and Caia Vleiks (eds) Legal Commentary to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (Edward Elgar Publishing 2026, upcoming).
  • Katia Bianchini and Iulia Mirzac, Article 8: Exemption from Exceptional Measures’ in Tamás Molnár and Caia Vleiks (eds) Legal Commentary to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (Edward Elgar Publishing 2026, upcoming).

Case Commentaries

  • Iulia Mirzac, The Risk of Persecution or Serious Harm Faced by Divorced Women with Illegitimate Children, and by Women Subjected to Domestic Violence in Bangladesh: SA (Divorced Woman – Illegitimate child) Bangladesh CG [2011] UKUT 00254 (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department of Law and Anthropology 2024) CUREDI041UK012, https://doi.org/10.48509/CUREDI041UK012.
  • Iulia Mirzac, The Risk of Persecution or Serious Harm on Return to Iran Faced by Iranian Citizens who Claimed to Have Converted from Islam to Christianity: PS (Christianity - risk) Iran CG [2020] UKUT 00046 (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department of Law and Anthropology 2024) CUREDI041UK013, https://doi.org/10.48509/CUREDI041UK013.
  • Iulia Mirzac, The Risk of Persecution or Serious Harm Faced by Single Women with Illegitimate Children, and by Women Subjected to Forced Customary Marriage and Domestic Violence in the Ivory Coast: MD (Women) Ivory Coast v SSHD CG [2010] UKUT 215 (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department of Law and Anthropology 2024) CUREDI041UK014, https://doi.org/10.48509/CUREDI041UK014.
  • Iulia Mirzac, Refugee Status and Women in Afghanistan as Members of a ‘Particular Social Group’: NS (Social Group – Women - Forced Marriage) Afghanistan CG [2004] UKIAT 00328 (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department of Law and Anthropology 2023) CUREDI041UK015, https://doi.org/10.48509/CUREDI041UK015.
  • Iulia Mirzac, Refugee Status for Female Victims of Human Trafficking and Juju/Voodoo Practices in Nigeria: HD (Trafficked Women) Nigeria CG [2016] UKUT 00454 (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department of Law and Anthropology 2023) CUREDI041UK004, https://doi.org/10.48509/CUREDI041UK004.
  • Iulia Mirzac, Refugee Status for Females at Risk of FGM and Parents Opposed to it in The Gambia: K and Others (FGM) The Gambia CG [2013] UKUT 00062 (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department of Law and Anthropology 2023) CUREDI041UK006,  https://doi.org/10.48509/CUREDI041UK006.
  • Iulia Mirzac, The Risk of Honour Killings Faced by Women with Illegitimate Children of Mixed Race in Azerbaijan: SL (Unmarried Mother with Mixed Race Child) Azerbaijan CG [2013] UKUT 00046 (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department of Law and Anthropology 2023) CUREDI041UK011, https://doi.org/10.48509/CUREDI041UK011.
  • Iulia Mirzac, Forced Marriage Protection Orders: A Balancing Act Between Safeguarding Against the Risk of Forced Marriage and Other Fundamental Rights under the ECHR: Re K (Forced Marriage: Passport Order) [2020] EWCA Civ 190 (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department of Law and Anthropology 2023) CUREDI041UK020, https://doi.org/10.48509/CUREDI041UK020.
  • Iulia Mirzac, Annulment of a Forced Marriage on Grounds of Duress, Department of Law and Anthropology, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology: NS v MI [2006] EWHC 1646 (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department of Law and Anthropology 2023) CUREDI041UK021, https://doi.org/10.48509/CUREDI041UK021.
  • Iulia Mirzac, The Court’s Powers to Protect Mentally-Able Adults at Risk of Forced Marriage:
  • RE SK (An Adult) (Forced Marriage: Appropriate Relief) [2004] EWHC 3202  (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department of Law and Anthropology 2023) CUREDI041UK022, https://doi.org/10.48509/CUREDI041UK022.
  • Iulia Mirzac, The Court’s Power to Protect a Dual Pakistani-British Minor at Risk of Forced Marriage Abroad: RB v FB and MA (Forced Marriage: Wardship: Jurisdiction) [2008] EWHC 1436 (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department of Law and Anthropology 2023) CUREDI041UK023, https://doi.org/10.48509/CUREDI041UK023.

Acknowledged Research Assistant:

  • Alan Desmond (ed.), The Zero-Sum Game of Economic Migration: Integration through Rights? (2024) Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law, Special Issue 22/23.
  • Sonia Morano-Foadi, Clara Della Croce and Peter Lugosi, ‘Distributed Solidarity and Refugees’ Integration into the Labour Market’, in Jesse Moritz (ed.) European Societies, Migration, and the Law: The "Others" amongst "Us". Cambridge University Press, 2020).