Researchers Rowie Stolk and Caelesta Braun's 'Litigation in the name of public interest' Kiem project included an interdisciplinary workshop on the same topic. For starting PhD candidates in particular, this was the chance to build valuable connections.
How often do interest groups turn to the courts to force politicians to take action, and how successful are they? That was the key question in the'Litigation in the name of public interest' Kiem project initiated by researchers Rowie Stolk (Assistant Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law) and Caelesta Braun (Professor of Public Governance and Civil Society). They created a database to gain a better understanding of interest group litigation, and the project also included a two-day workshop to bring together researchers who study the topic from different disciplines.
Political science, anthropology, sociology and law scholars came together to hear about one another's research and to explore the options for further collaboration. Rowie Stolk was one of the organisers.
Interdisciplinary collaboration initially takes a lot of time because researchers have to learn one another's language. Was that the case here?
'Definitely, you see it in the definitions used alone. When an interest group goes to court, one researcher talks about "strategic litigation", another terms it "public interest litigation", while yet another calls it "legal mobilisation". There was also a whole discussion about whether complaining to the Ombudsman or responding to government bills through internet consultations qualifies as legal mobilisation. For some, this was blindingly obvious, whereas others weren't so sure. There was a lot of discussion about terminology during the presentations. Sometimes people would say: "If we see that name, we'd think that has nothing to do with this topic." We learned a lot from that.'
What were the results of the workshop?
'We chose mainly to invite people who are at the start of their research. New PhD candidates spoke about their research plans and kept an eye out for disciplines that might be of interest. Postdocs and assistant professors presented draft articles. We deliberately chose to have each presentation commented on by a researcher from another discipline. The two days were mainly about possible collaborations. Luckily, lots of people saw openings. For Caelesta and me, the workshop was useful because we got some good tips on how to clean up the dataset we'd set up with the Kiem grant. And we'd also invited a De Correspondent journalist who focuses on climate and environment litigation. He spoke with the participants and speakers about what kind of information is of interest to journalists, and how to reach a broader audience with your research findings.'
How unique is a workshop like this?
'Public interest litigation is a hot topic at the moment, but events about it are often from a single perspective: immigration or the climate, for example, or an academic discipline like European law. I don't think there's ever been a workshop in the Netherlands spanning the entire spectrum. And that's proven to be a really useful approach, especially for young researchers. My administrative law PhD candidates, for example, haven't had much chance to talk to political science, public administration or sociology scholars during one event, or to gain an overview of the discussions being conducted in this area. Events like these break down barriers for them because otherwise they wouldn't know how to start exploring all the different perspectives.'
What is the Kiem grant?
Through Kiem, Leiden University will provide Leiden staff with 25 annual seed grants between 2024 and 2026 to develop new interdisciplinary (interfaculty) teaching/research collaborations and encounters. Kiem applications (€10,000 per project) should involve staff from at least two faculties at Leiden University.
