Restorative Justice and the Law

1. Restorative Justice and the Law Based on Lode Walgrave (2008), Restorative Justice, Self-interest and Responsible Citizenship, Cullompton (UK): Willan Publishing

2. Introduction • A difficult relationship between RJ and legal safeguards • RJ needs a legal frame • Penal justice does not have the monopoly of legal safeguards

3. RJ as another paradigm • A different paradigm • inspired by a clearly distinct philosophy; • it conceptualizes the essentials of crime differently, • aims at different goals, • involves other key actors, • uses dissimilar means, and • operates in a different social and juridical context. • Two important principles to be guaranteed. - The equivalence of all citizens before the law. - Protection of citizens against abuse of power by fellow citizens and by the state.

4. Dominion (Braithwaite & Pettit 1990) • The set of assured rights and freedoms A collective good (contrary to liberal concept of freedom) • Restoring assurance in dominion Public intervention after crime is not primarily to redress the balance of benefits and burdens, or to reconfirm the law, as in traditional penal theories, but to enhance assurance through the message that authorities take dominion seriously. • Respecting rights and freedoms in dominion Parsimony Checking of power

5. Restorative justice as inversed constructive retributivism • Blaming norm transgression • Responsibility • Balance The retributive character provides retrospectivity, which is crucial for the development of legal safeguards.

6. Different meanings of principles • Equality • Presumption of innocence • Proportionality • Public nature

7. Respect for human rights and a legal frame • Restorative processes cannot take place in a juridical vacuum • Juridical procedures in view of reparative sanctions must allow all checks and balances typical in a constitutional democracy • Lawyers as crucial partners in restorative justice