Obstacles to introduce restorative justice procedures and ways to overcome them from the experience of Polish juridical practice

Abstract

One of the most important developments in crime and its control over recent decades has been the emergence of a dynamic campaign promoting restorative justice as an alternative to standard ways of responding to crime, i.e. to traditional prosecution, court and state punishment. Accompanying this has been a rapidly growing literature and practice on the subject, from New Zealand, North America, the UK, Western Europe, Russia, and Australasia. In Poland until recently very little was known and written on the subject of Restorative Justice. This paper focuses on process and strategy to make the restorative justice known and practice in Poland, including criminal justice process. The author discusses the importance of presenting the roots of the similar institutions in the Polish legal culture, getting acquainted with the influential contributions to the restorative justice both from its theory and philosophy as well as from the dogmatic field of criminal law. The author also discusses the importance of letting both proponents of restorative justice and by opponents to be heard for in fact it helps the restorative justice movement. The author concludes by presenting the variety of practical application of the concepts, both its successes and failures in Polish practice.