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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EURO-EXPERT (Cultural Expertise in Europe: What is it useful for?)

Teaser

Summary

Respect for diversity has been at the forefront of political accession to the European Union since 1993 and socio-legal scholarship has developed articulated reflections on the accommodation of ethnic and religious minorities in Europe. Country experts have been instructed with increasing frequency in judicial and pre- judicial proceedings involving members of diasporic communities. In some common law countries the role of the expert witness has expanded to systematically assist the judge when litigants or defendants belong to minorities; in most civil law countries, similar roles are played by translators and cultural mediators, including notaries and lawyers. All these practices and many others in which cultural arguments are used for conflict resolution fall under the umbrella definition of cultural expertise. Yet, whilst the use of cultural expertise has become widespread, a comprehensive and systematic assessment was hindered by the lack of its adequate conceptualisation and contextualisation. Hence our question: Cultural Expertise in Europe: What is it useful for? Addressing this question is crucial today for going beyond formal justice and providing legal and para-legal professionals with concrete instruments for substantive justice in multicultural and diverse societies. To this aim EURO-EXPERT develops an integrated concept of cultural expertise within a new historiographical framework that investigates the development and impact of cultural expertise over time and space. Thanks to a broadened definition of cultural expertise EURO-EXPERT records the use and impact of cultural expertise in fifteen European countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In-context data are collected through ethnographic fieldwork conducted by a modular team trained to mixed methods. The objectives of EURO-EXPERT are: 1) mapping the terms and conditions of cultural expertise in court and out-of-court; 2) creating a toolkit for measuring the impact of cultural expertise; 3) establishing an open access searchable database for the consultation of cases and solutions including cultural expertise; 4) designing a teaching and learning module using the cultural expertise impact toolkit; and 5) formulating policy-making guidelines which include tested solutions for sustainable inclusiveness in Europe.

Work performed

EURO-EXPERT works as a modular team composed by PI and Post-Doc (Core Team), a Project Coordinator, a voluntary filmmaker, occasional Research Assistants, 13 Data-Collectors consultants located in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and an IT consultant. The innovation of this modular team lies on its stress on context-centered knowledge, two ways skill transfer, and trans-local transfer of knowledge. Local stakeholders are empowered to creatively transfer knowledge and collaborating at an international level. Junior team members benefit from EURO-EXPERT as an international springboard for developing an independent career.

The quantitative-led phase of data-collection used three instruments imparted on a digital multilingual platform on which respondents answered in their native language: 1) survey distributed to judges, lawyers, experts, and beneficiaries; 2) collection of case law including CE; and 3) survey of out-of-court sites of CE. Quantitative-led data were validated by a qualitative workshop with experts from state and non-state jurisdictions of the countries of the research who have also collaborated for establishing the indicators of impact of CE. Results are visualised through reports and maps almost real time on our website. Preliminary analysis shows a trichotomy revolving around 1) the specialised and sectoral use of a great variety of instruments that fall under the umbrella concept of cultural expertise 2) the lack of general awareness of cultural expertise as an instrument for assisting conflict resolution, and 3) the increased demand for cultural expertise by legal and para-legal professionals.

EURO-EXPERT has consolidated an interdisciplinary and intersectional network of partners including both academicians and members of the legal and para-legal professions. These partners contribute at several venues designed by EURO-EXPERT: conferences and workshops, academic visiting, mailing lists, website and social media. The inaugural conference and two workshops were convened in Oxford: 1) Cultural Expertise in Socio-Legal Studies and History (15-16 December 2016); 2) Cultural Expertise in Ancient and Modern History (2 - 4 August 2018) and 2) Cultural Expertise: Indicators of Impact (28 February 2019). EURO-EXPERT received so far six honorary academic visitors, created CulturalExpertise mailing list on Jiscmail, EURO-EXPERT website, and a Twitter account CulturalExperts.

EURO-EXPERT published so far a total of 25 publications. Publications span from special issues focusing on the use and usefulness of CE and afferent concepts of belonging, to videos disseminating the project, communicating methods and outputs to larger audiences, and fostering collaboration with the legal profession in the countries of the research.EURO-EXPERT\'s team members participated to a total of 39 events of dissemination. Dissemination include a wide range of venues from international conferences to training for the legal profession and interviews, including also social media.

NewHoRRIzon selected EURO-EXPERT among the five ERC projects which scored highest in Public Engagement, Gender Equality, Open Access, Science Literacy and Science Education, Ethics and Governance and awarded funds for the development of a website documenting its Responsible Research Innovation Approach.

Final results

EURO-EXPERT has progressed beyond the state on three extents 1) formulation of an integrated definition of CE which is diverse, inclusive, and takes history into critical account, 2) design of the methodological instruments for the assessment of the use and impact of CE, and 3) development of a beneficiary-centered dialogue with the legal and para-legal profession.

1) Formulation of an integrated definition of CE which is diverse, inclusive, and takes history into critical account. In spite of the fact that CE belongs to the everyday management of diversity, it started to be acknowledged only in 2009 as the special knowledge that enables socio-legal scholars, experts in non-European laws, or, more generally speaking, cultural mediators - the so-called cultural brokers-, to locate and describe relevant facts in light of the particular background of the claimants and litigants and for the use of the court. This definition connects with the socio-anthropological scholarship that has proposed for a longtime a better collaboration between anthropologists and lawyer. Yet mainstream socio-legal studies have been largely inattentive to the engagement of anthropologists with law. This long-time socio-legal blindness means there is a need for greater reflection on CE today in order to assess its explicit and sometimes implicit role in legal proceedings and out-of-court as well. Thanks to the ethnographic and historiographical approach to CE collected data show that in spite of the fact that the concept of CE is new the practices that this concept describes are not. The theoretical enquiry that EURO-EXPERT has developed show the contemporary evolution and variation of CE as an emergent concept providing a conceptual umbrella to a variety of evolving practices which all include the use of the special knowledge of social sciences for the resolution of conflicts. EURO-EXPERT surveys the application of CE in the legal process and out-of-court with an unprecedented span of fields going from ethno-psychiatry to the recognition of the rights of autochthone minorities including linguistic expertise, historical expertise in situations of transitional justice, and post-colonial reformulation of cultural rights. The partially Euro-centric and court based approach of the first definition of CE was overcome by the formulation of a new integrated definition that broadens up to all kinds of CE ranging from expert witnessing to out-of-court mediation and including also defence and investigation. CE is now defined as the special knowledge that enables socio-legal scholars, experts in laws and cultures, or, more generally speaking, cultural mediators - the so-called cultural brokers-, to locate and describe relevant facts in light of the particular background of the claimants and litigants and for the use of the decision-making authority. The particular innovation of the integrated definition of CE is its feature of umbrella concept for all the practices that have used cultural knowledge for conflict resolution over the ages.

2. Data available prior to the start of EURO-EXPERT indicated that CE, with or without the appointment of experts is now routinely used in Europe for an increasing range of cases from criminal to civil law, including also labour law, banking law, immigration laws and many others: asylum, entry permits, family reunions, adoptions, transnational business disputes, citizenship, child custody, extradition, deportation, validity of marriage and divorce, customary financial transaction, insurance, employers-employee relationships, and many other cases which appeared as scattered across different fields. Data collected by EURO-EXPERT not only confirm the variety of CE, but also show that CE plays a role in longer term diversity including religious, ethnic, and linguistic minorities that enjoy or claim semi-autonomous rights sanctioned by treaties and constitutions. EURO-EXPERT has developed mixed methods data-collection that base on ethn