What needs and challenges are involved in adapting restorative justice in environmental cases? How has restorative justice been used in cases involving environmental harm?

We are excited to welcome Professor Ivo Aertsen and Lawrence Kershen KC for a dialogue between theory and practice in environmental restorative justice. Ivo Aertsen will introduce the topic for us, including how restorative justice can be adapted in cases of environmental harm and some of the needs and challenges involved. Lawrence Kershen will share his experiences as a facilitator and lawyer to reflect on how environmental restorative justice happens in practice. 

The event will involve opportunities for questions and discussion.

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This online event will be held on Zoom. You can register on Eventbrite, with variable ticket prices available. Please pay as you are able so that we have the resources to continue to hold these types of events:

£10 (e.g. employed professional/government/academic/large organisation)

£5 (e.g. employed by a small charity)

Free (e.g. student/volunteer/don’t have the resources to pay for a ticket)

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Professor Ivo Aertsen is Emeritus Professor of Criminology at the University of Leuven (Belgium). He holds degrees of psychology, law and criminology from the same university. Before coming to academia, Ivo worked for 12 years ‘in the field’, first in a prison with long term inmates and later with victims of crime, including a mutual support group of parents of murdered children.

At the Leuven Institute of Criminology he led the Research Line on ‘Restorative Justice and Victimology’ from 2001 to 2019. He was chair of the European Forum for Restorative Justice from 2000 to 2004, and has coordinated a series of European research projects and international publications. He has been involved as expert in restorative justice related work in various countries and for international institutions such as the Council of Europe, European Union and United Nations. In Belgium, he has been actively involved as expert and facilitator for victims of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church during a period of 6 years.

He is doing (action-)research on the relevance of restorative justice for various contexts of institutional violence and for environmental crime, as well as exploring the meaning of restorative cities. He is Co-Editor of The International Journal of Restorative Justice and General Co-Editor of The International Encyclopaedia of Restorative Justice.

 

Lawrence Kershen KC was accredited as a mediator in 1994, and his experience covers a range of disputes including commercial, public sector and voluntary organisations. He practised as a barrister and Kings Counsel for more than 30 years until 1999, and sat as a Crown Court Recorder.

Inspired by the effectiveness of Restorative Justice, he has supported its development since 1998 and was chair of the Restorative Justice Council. He was accredited as an RJ practitioner in 2011. The potential of RJ in the current climate crisis has led to a particular focus on Environmental Restorative Justice (ERJ). He is a member of the ERJ Working Group of the European Forum for RJ.

Lawrence has run trainings in mediation skills for lawyers and others in jurisdictions from Iceland to the People’s Republic of Laos. He has been included in the Mediator ‘Hall of Fame’ by the Legal 500, is described as one of the world's leading commercial mediators by Who’s Who Legal and listed as Mediator in ‘Best Lawyers in the UK’.