EURO-EXPERT project is seeking assistance from immigration and asylum practitioners
EURO-EXPERT, which is a research project at the University of Oxford funded by the European Research Council, is investigating the use and impact of cultural expertise in the courts and has asked that lawyers, judges and expert witnesses take the time to fill in their short survey.
You can access the survey at https://oxfordfacultyoflaw.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b9oEC6184T1iuLX. It takes approximately 10 minutes to complete.
The EURO-EXPERT project is studying the special knowledge that enables socio-legal scholars or cultural experts to locate and describe relevant facts in light of the particular background of claimants and litigants for the use of the courts.
Dr Livia Holden leads the EURO-EXPERT project.
She explains: "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. Cultural expertise is sometimes used in order to avoid excessive judicialisation. Notwithstanding, disbelief is developing around cultural expertise; and, escalations of violence and counter-violence signal that the European majority and the so-called minorities are drifting apart. Hence our question: Cultural Expertise in Europe: What is it useful for?"
See here on the University of Oxford website for more about the EURO-EXPERT project.