ANU & EPA Awarded Research Grant on Restorative Justice for Environment

The Australian Research Council (ARC) recently awarded the Australian National University (ANU) and Victorian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) a three-year industry/academic (linkage) research grant valued overall at $1m including industry and ARC cash and in-kind contributions. The project will examine how restorative justice practices can prevent and address environmental harm.

Restorative Justice (RJ) broadly understood allows all people with a stake in an offence (or conflict) to engage in a facilitated process that is designed to achieve a collective understanding about the causes and effects of harm and seek resolution.

Specifically, the research will:

• Co-design, develop, test (through pilots) and evaluate an Environmental Restorative Practices Continuum – to allow consideration of RJ across the regulatory continuum of approval/permit, complaints, compliance and investigation, and sanctioning and enforcement;

• Develop the national and international knowledge base about how RJ principles and practices can be applied to prevent and address environmental harm – which will be written up for publication progressively throughout the program.

The ANU research partner is the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet). The research team includes Professors John Braithwaite and Valerie Braithwaite, Associate Professor Miranda Forsyth (Chief investigator) and Dr Deborah Cleland. EPA Partner Investigators (PIs) are Dr Cathy Wilkinson and Deb Hollingworth with Dr Stef Kaufman and Alistair Nairn as program advisers.

Commencing in August 2018 the research will occur in four stages over three years concluding in July 2021 with a final report.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Restorative Justice and related projects, visit our Centre for Restorative Justice (CRJ).