Presentation Growth Fund application on enhanced conflict-resolving capabilities
On 8 March 2023, the Growth Fund application which HiiL (The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law) has drawn up in collaboration with various consortium partners, including the research group on Institutions for Conflict Resolution, was presented in Press Center Nieuwspoort. Central to the application are the currently inadequate conflict-resolving capabilities and the possibilities to improve this.
As part of the application, seven development centers want to focus on common and high-impact conflicts and on developing effective routes to resolving these conflicts. It concerns problems and conflicts in the following areas: (1) spatial scarcity, (2) labor and cooperation in small and medium-sized enterprises, (3) neighborly relations, (4) family relations, (5) injury and large-scale recovery, (6 ) debts, (7) criminal law (needs of victims and problems of defendants). The aim of the development centers is to arrive at effective routes to resolving these conflicts. The consortium partners want to move towards a situation in which 80% of conflicts are resolved in a fair manner within a year, in line with the motto borrowed from Claudia de Breij: “It won't be fine, but we can make it right”. More information about the application can be found here.
The research group on Institutions for Conflict Resolution (COI) – in which Leiden University, Utrecht University and Radboud University Nijmegen jointly conduct research into the conflict-solving and conflict-preventing capabilities of institutions – participates in several of the development centers mentioned above and also aims to feed them methodologically and conceptually from the overarching knowledge center Thoughtleadership and Methods. One only needs to open the daily newspapers to see that the time is ripe for large-scale research on these issues and valorization of that research. The high workload and backlogs of judges and other conflict-solving institutions, slow procedures and recovery operations (e.g. Groningen, childcare benefits scandal) and inadequate help with problems and conflicts within families are just a few examples. COI is therefore rooting for the grant to be awarded!