A ذكذكتسئµ (ذكذكتسئµ) law professor is part of an international research team awarded more than €10.4 million to transform how police and investigators around the world conduct interviews.
The six-year project, titled JUSTICE – Joining Unique Strategies Together for Interrogative Coercion Elimination, aims to replace coercive and abusive interrogation methods with those grounded in human rights and evidence.
L-R: Bennett Kleinberg, Yvonne Daly, Shane O’Mara, Dave Walsh
The project brings together four leading academics from across Europe – Professor Dave Walsh (Leicester De Montfort Law School, ذكذكتسئµ), Professor Shane O’Mara (Trinity College Dublin), Professor Yvonne Daly (Dublin City University), and Dr Bennett Kleinberg (Tilburg University, The Netherlands).
Coercive interrogation — including intimidation, psychological pressure, denial of rights, and even physical force — remains a widespread global problem. These methods violate human rights, often produce unreliable information, and can cause lasting harm to individuals and justice systems alike.
The JUSTICE project seeks to understand why such practices persist and how to replace them with effective, humane interviewing techniques that prioritise truth-seeking over confession-seeking.
It is being funded by the European Research Council (ERC), through its Synergy Grants programme, which aims to tackle some of the most challenging scientific questions across a broad range of fields.
Professor Walsh, from ذكذكتسئµ’s Leicester De Montfort Law School, said the grant represented a major opportunity to reshape investigative practices worldwide.
He said: “This grant provides the opportunity to make a real and positive difference to lives around the globe.
“JUSTICE is a ground-breaking and ambitious project that will expose the fallacy of poor investigative practices and highlight the benefits of effective policing methods that adhere to ethical values, international legal norms and human rights.
“In short, we will help resolve criminal cases using fair and evidence-based means.”
The project combines expertise from law, psychology, neuroscience, and data science to explore how coercive methods take hold within systems and individuals — and what can drive meaningful change. By blending human and artificial intelligence, the team will develop scalable, validated tools to shape policy, training, and practice in investigative interviewing worldwide.
Professor Shane O’Mara, from Trinity College Dublin, said: “JUSTICE is about moving from confession-seeking to truth-seeking. By combining law, psychology, neuroscience and data science, we’ll pinpoint when and why coercion creeps into interviews and devise practical ways to prevent it.”
Professor Yvonne Daly, at Dublin City University, said the project demonstrates the power of cross-disciplinary collaboration.
“All four of us are truly excited to bring our expertise together to tackle this serious societal issue,” she said. “We’ve already learned so much from one another in designing our work programme, and we look forward to building a strong team to deliver this ambitious research with the support of the ERC Synergy Grant.”
Dr Bennett Kleinberg, from Tilburg University, added: “This grant enables us to pursue truly cross-disciplinary and ambitious research that would not otherwise be possible. Our project addresses a global, urgent and complex challenge: building the evidence base and driving change towards investigative interviewing practices that are effective, evidence-based, and fully compliant with human rights.”
Through its research, JUSTICE aims to promote humane, effective, and rights-compliant interviewing, aligning with the Mendez Principles on Effective Interviewing. The project’s long-term goal is to help establish a new global standard for ethical investigations — one that protects the innocent, supports victims, and strengthens public trust in justice systems worldwide.
Posted on Thursday 6 November 2025