Sensing for Justice - Citizen Sensing as a source of evidence in environmental justice litigation and as a tool for environmental mediation

Project Information

SensJus

Grant agreement ID: 891513

DOI

10.3030/891513

Project closed

EC signature date 12 May 2020

Start date 1 September 2021

End date 31 August 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 171 473,28

EU contribution

€ 171 473,28

Coordinated by

JRC -JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE- EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SensJus (Sensing for Justice - Citizen Sensing as a source of evidence in environmental justice litigation and as a tool for environmental mediation)

Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

On June 27, 2019, a landmark court decision was issued in Texas, in which a judge found petrochemical company Formosa, liable for violating the Clean Water Act because of plastic discharge into local waters. The case was based mostly on citizen gathered-evidence which involved volunteer observations performed over years. This practice entailing civic environmental monitoring could be qualified as ‘citizen science’. The contamination could not be proved through existing data held by competent authorities since the company never filed any record of pollution.
The case motivated an investigation of the potential of relying on citizen science as a source of evidence in environmental litigation. Furthermore, we hypothesized that citizen science could also play a role in avoiding the court stage, as a tool to mediate the environmental conflict. Lastly, we posited that citizen science demands an inquiry into the right of every person to contribute environmental information, in particular under the Aarhus Convention framework.
Related research was still in its infancy. The key objective of the Sensing for Justice project was to fill this knowledge gap, and provide newly required research capacity in the EU. The research was hosted by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, leading actor in the research on citizen science for environmental interventions, which allowed us to play a crucial role in the field.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project delivered key scientific contributions including (selected highlights):
- “Attraversare il campo con una ricerca lenta e creativa. Riflessioni dal progetto «Sensing for Justice»”. Ragion Pratica 1/2023. DOI: 10.1415/107267 (with a focus on the methodology adopted)
- “When Concerned People Produce Environmental Information: A Need to Re-Think Existing Legal Frameworks and Governance Models?” Citizen Science: Theory and Practice 8(1). DOI: 10.5334/cstp.496 (with a focus on the right to contribute environmental information)
- “The ‘Citizen Sensing Paradigm’ to Foster Urban Transitions: Lessons from Civic Environmental Monitoring in Rome.” European Journal of Risk Regulation. DOI: 10.1017/err.2022.28 (with a focus on citizen science and mediation of environmental conflicts)
- “Striving for Good Environmental Information: Civic Sentinels of Oil Pollution in the South of the North”. Law, Environment and Development Journal. DOI: 10.25501/SOAS.00037890 (with a focus on citizen science for environmental law enforcement)

Other results to promote our research in non-academic outlets include (selected):
- A popular blog post on the Formosa Case on Citizen Science Track: https://cstrack.eu/format/reports/the-formosa-case-a-step-forward-on-the-acceptance-of-citizen-collected-evidence-in-environmental-litigation/
- Our illustrated consent forms to engage low literacy research participants: https://sensingforjustice.webnode.it/l/our-visual-consent-forms-now-out-as-creative-commons/
- A policy brief containing the key lessons from the project: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC132206
- A media interview on the popular scientific journal Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01103-x

We also (co-)organized a number of scientific and popular events including (selected):
In 2023: SensJus final event at the European Commission JRC, Ispra; a stand and panel at KlimatFest, Milan; two virtual sessions from the SensJus project of the European Citizen Science Collaboration Group on ‘Citizen science & the law’ and on ‘Engaging stakeholders in citizen science’.
In 2022: a session on ‘Civic monitoring and deliberative democracy’ at the IV Public Participation and Deliberative Democracy Festival, Ispra, Italy and virtual; two sessions on ‘Science&Art’ and ‘Science in Court’ at the European Commission JRC Science Summit, virtual; an exhibition on SensJus and its artistic outputs at the European Commission JRC, Ispra; two interactive discussions at the European Citizen Science Association Conference, Berlin, Germany; a dialogue roundtable at the Engaging Citizen Science Conference, Aarhus, Denmark.
In 2021: a workshop on ‘Health citizen science dilemmas under the GDPR’, hosted by the Brocher Foundation, Geneva, Switzerland.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Based on the research deployed, we advanced the field beyond the state of the art, reaching the following conclusions:
• Civic monitoring is a powerful source of evidence for law enforcement. Action in court through evidence gathered by ordinary people can signal unaddressed civic demands to authorities.
• The hurdle of having civic evidence accepted by courts is lower where the process of gathering evidence is relatively non-technical and based on ordinary observations. The more sophisticated the sampling, the greater the likelihood the counterpart or the court may challenge the evidence.
• As there are no specific rules expressly dedicated to civic evidence, it would help future cases if enforcement authorities could provide guidance on the standards applied to assess such evidence. A legal recognition at a procedural level of this peculiar category could also be valuable, especially considering its potential to fill official reporting gaps.
• Civic monitoring can also be an occasion for cooperation between citizens and authorities on a shared issue. The practice is contributing to the provision of public services. Embracing it can be an opportunity for authorities to make governance models more responsive.
• Although at present there are no examples of judicial cases where environmental damage was prosecuted mostly based on citizen-gathered evidence in Europe, a potential for this type of evidence can be found in climate litigation.
• Performing civic environmental monitoring should be recognised as a rightful contribution to official enforcement of environmental law, in particular under the Aarhus Convention. This could unleash civic monitoring potential and shield environmental defenders from adverse consequences of their monitoring activities.

We ensured these results could reach the target audience, including civil society and policy and law-makers. In particular, to refine engaging methods of dissemination we cooperated with the JRC Science & Art initiative. We also joined efforts with two other MSCA IFs projects for deploying an outreach strategy, and we produced a factsheet and a catchy video with the support of the Horizon Results Booster.

The scientific, social and policy impacts of our research have been recognized by multiple actors. In 2023, we won the European Commission JRC Young Scientist Excellence Award and our research featured in the ‘#SHEU LEADS’ campaign launched by Commissioner Gabriel for Innovation, Research, and Culture. The project also received three honorary mentions in 2023: at the EU Citizen Science Prize, at the STARTS Prize for Science, Technology & the Arts and at the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions competition. In 2022, SensJus was chosen as ‘Breakthrough of the Year’, in the Science Engagement category of the Falling Walls contest, Berlin.

Front page SensJus illustrated brief

SensJus in schools

Snap from SensJus graphic novel

SensJus fully visual participant information sheet

SensJus at public events

Civic monitoring in action 1

SensJus at Falling Walls 2022

SensJus fully visual consent form

Front page of SensJus graphic novel

Civic monitoring in action 2