NEWS: International Cooperation with the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary 

The Institutions for Conflict Resolution Network has started to officially cooperate with the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ), which ‘unites the national institutions in the Member States of the European Union which are independent of the executive and legislature, and which are responsible for the support of the Judiciaries in the independent delivery of justice’.

Collaboration is in our blood. We started as a collaborative project by three Dutch law faculties. Researchers from the legal discipline and other disciplines from these faculties take part in joint research projects and apply jointly for funding and, each year, a group of PhD candidates from the three faculties comes together to discuss their research and follow training. We do not only cooperate within academia, but also with societal partners. For this purpose, we organize annual stakeholders meetings during which we present our research to these partners and ask for their input.

In addition to our national collaboration, the Institutions for Conflict Resolution Network is increasingly seeking international collaboration. An important example of this is the two-day conference on Courts as an Arena for Societal Change that was organized in Leiden on 8 and 9 July 2022. The conference brought together around 180 scientists and several professionals working in legal practice took part in this conference, coming from all continents except Antarctica and working in all kinds of academic disciplines (besides law also political science, philosophy and criminology, among others). Check the corresponding blog series here.

The conference in Leiden was the starting point for further international collaboration. This will not only be reflected in a subsequent international conference that will take place in Utrecht in September 2023 on Towards Just Institutional Approaches to Conflict Prevention and Resolution, but also in the form of a (hybrid) international seminar series. So far, speakers have included Professor Rick Lawson (who spoke about how the ECtHR is increasingly confronted with politically sensitive cases) and Professor Amy Schmitz (who spoke about online dispute resolution and access to justice). Both lectures were well-visited by people from the Netherlands and abroad.

Would you like to cooperate with us as well? Please our project coordinator (lize.glas@ru.nl).