Dr. Ian Marder delivers series of workshops and presentations in October and November

Monday, November 30, 2020 - 10:15

During October and November 2020, Dr. Ian Marder was invited to deliver a number of presentations relating to restorative justice. First, on the afternoon of 13th October 2020, Ian collaborated with ACO Angelena Murphy from the Irish Prison Service (IPS) College to organise and deliver a webinar to IPS HQ staff. The webinar, lasting for 90 minutes and attended by over 60 persons, introduced civil servants working at IPS HQ to restorative practices and principles, illustrating how these can be applied in prisons and across prison services more broadly to the benefit of staff, management and people in custody.
 
A couple of weeks later, Ian delivered an invited presentation at the International Conference of Legal Regulators (30th October). His panel was chaired by Dr. Brian Doherty (CEO, Legal Services Regulatory Authority of Ireland) and discussed European approaches to applying restorative justice principles and mediation in legal regulation. He spoke alongside Ger Deeling, the Irish Financial and Pension Services Ombudsman, who discussed his use of problem solving techniques and mediation to resolve disputes between consumers and financial service providers, and Merete Smith (Secretary General, Norwegian Bar Association), who discussed the embedded nature of mediation in Norwegian law and recent developments in its use in legal regulation.
 
Ian was also invited to address national restorative justice conferences in Finland (5th November) and Estonia (26th November). These keynote presentations focused on the potential for restorative principles to support cultural change in domestic criminal justice institutions. With reference to the criminological research on systemic and institutional cultures (including that by his colleague, Prof. Claire Hamilton, and his own recent report on restorative approaches to probation work), he introduced those present to the most progressive elements of the Council of Europe Recommendation concerning restorative justice in criminal matters. These provisions note that, beyond making restorative justice services available to all victims and offenders, criminal justice institutions can develop a restorative culture by orienting their operational, internal and multi-agency practices towards restorative principles and practices.
 
Ian was also commissioned by the Estonian Ministry of Justice to deliver a workshop on 16th November on developing restorative probation practices for the Estonian probation service. In collaboration with Aine Morris (Probation Service of Ireland, Restorative Justice and Victim Services Unit), he delivered a three-hour workshop to probation officers and managers and other criminal justice stakeholders.
 
In Maynooth University Department of Law, Ian delivers a postgraduate module in restorative justice (LW687 Restorative Justice) on the MA in Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice, which he chairs. He also teaches restorative policing and victims’ experiences of restorative justice on two of his undergraduate modules: LW269 Policing and LW380 Victimology, respectively.