Restorative Justice Research Articles

Addressing Harms and Restoring Dignity: Reparative, Restorative and Reconciliatory Justice in the Southern Kalahari

Using the frameworks of reparative, restorative and reconciliatory justice, this article explores the impact of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Land Reform Programme on harms caused to the ≠ Khomani San of the Southern Kalahari. These harms included dehumanisation, fragmentation and genocide during the colonial and Apartheid periods. We show that, despite its objectives, the TRC failed to acknowledge the dignity and humanity of the San, reaffirming their erasure. Land restitution by restoring rights offered the community the means to address deep structural harms, restore human relationships and re-claim the narrative about themselves for a broader emancipation. The broader cultural space of reconciliation opened up by the TRC and the restoration of land rights to the ≠ Khomani San enable them to re-claim the truth about themselves and their contemporary belonging in South Africa’s landscape.

Lived experiences of people impacted by gun violence: qualitative analysis of the prescriptions for repair project

BackgroundRestorative justice interventions can help address the harm created by gun violence, although few restorative justice programs focus solely on survivors or loved ones of victims of gun violence. Our...

How does digital inclusive finance affect energy justice? Evidence from China

This study investigates the impact of digital inclusive finance (DIF) on energy justice (EJ) and examines its underlying mechanisms as well as the moderating role of financial supervision (FS), using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces during 2011–2021. The findings indicate that DIF promotes EJ, particularly in recognition, procedural, and restorative justice. Digital technology innovation and energy structure upgrading are two important pathways through which DIF affect EJ. DIF's impact on EJ is positively moderated by FS. The current level of FS is within an optimal range, maximizing the positive effect of DIF on EJ. Significant regional variations are observed in the moderating effects of FS.

Reconciling Cultural Values with Legal Principles: Traditional African Justice Systems in Contemporary Context

This comprehensive study delves into the fundamental principles of the traditional African justice system, juxtaposing it against the broader philosophical and jurisprudential evolution of the concept of justice. Drawing on a robust literature review, the article uncovers the unique features that set African justice mechanisms apart from formal court systems - the central role of community leaders, active community participation, and a focus on reconciliation and harmony. Tracing the concept of justice from ancient Greece to the present day, the study situates the African approach within this broader context. It explores diverse conceptions, from natural justice to economic, social, and corrective justice, and how they have been interpreted and applied in the African context. Crucially, the article reveals how traditional systems have often filled the gap between community needs and formal legal services. The findings suggest that the guiding principles of reconciliation and community harmony, which underpin the African justice model, offer invaluable insights for developing more holistic and inclusive justice systems. In an era of globalization, these insights could inform the pursuit of social cohesion and the common good, presenting a compelling alternative to the individualistic orientations of mainstream justice frameworks. Through its in-depth analysis and interdisciplinary approach, this study makes a significant contribution to the understanding of traditional African justice, its resilience, and its potential relevance in the contemporary world. The article's rich, sharp, and well-crafted narrative offers policymakers, scholars, and practitioners a vital resource for exploring innovative pathways to justice that prioritizes community-centric values.

8 - Potentialising Traditional Peacebuilding System towards Resolution of Land Disputes in African communities

Land is a common cause of conflict in Africa. It is at the root of much social unrest and violence among family members, groups and communities. Although the state judicial system has been a major adjudicator in these instances, their case pronouncements have brought little or no recourse to peaceful co-existence among the conflicted parties. This article seeks to advance the potential of the traditional peacebuilding system as a ‘community friendly’ option especially for constructive land dispute resolution. Traditional peacebuilding is devoid of long judicial proceedings, ‘preconceived’ justice and high costs. This article argues that, unlike the state judicial system, traditional peacebuilding is not only about making resolutions through rational choice, custom knowledge, community history and social cohesion but also about enhancing restorative justice, inclusiveness and peace promotion, and developing the trust and safety that is so badly needed across African communities. It, therefore, concludes that the traditional peacebuilding system has an organisational propensity to resolve land disputes within an institutionalised structure across African communities.

"Even Though the System Had Failed Him His Entire Life, We Were Failing Him Yet Again": How Clinical, Welfare, and Penal Medicine Interact to Drive Health Inequities and Medical Moral Injury.

Adam, a justice-involved young man, was brought into the emergency department at the county hospital in cardiogenic shock due to a recurring episode of injection-drug-use-related infective endocarditis (IDU-IE). Adam had initiated injection opioid use in prison. He was surgically treated for the previous episodes of IDU-IE but was unable to fully recover due to limitations in care within penal medicine. This case report explores the prison as a determinant of health, interactions between clinical, welfare, and penal medicine, to produce and maintain health inequities, and structural drivers of physician moral injury through an interview with Adam and reflexive writings from emergency medicine physicians. This case demonstrates the need for three types of structural health interventions: (1) restorative justice, community-based reentry programs, and housing as welfare medicine, (2) increased harm reduction services across healthcare, especially penal medicine, and (3) equitable institutional protocols (contrary to ambiguous guidelines) to treat clinical conditions like IDU-IE that disproportionately impact structurally vulnerable patients.

Justice is Blind and So is Her Architect: Canadian Courthouse Designs and their Socio-Spatial Implications

The imposing design of modern Canadian courthouses reflects the adversarial nature of the Canadian criminal justice system. This paper critically examines how excessive surveillance and security tactics, physical segregation in courtrooms, and restrictions on religious clothing inadvertently harm court users. Drawing on a blend of social sciences and architectural design theory, the analysis recommends greater efforts on behalf of the courts to ensure safe and meaningful victim participation, allow room for agencies assisting accused individuals or victims, and support opportunities for restorative justice. Courts are living, breathing social spaces which influence the administration of justice. As such, this paper argues that courthouses should be adaptable and evolve to address the needs of a transforming legal landscape. Overall, the judicial process is a distressing experience for all of the parties involved. Shifting to a more progressive and inclusive courthouse design is a key step in embodying the justice system that Canada needs.

Embedding justice into climate policy and practice relevant to tourism

Climate change in tourism discussions rarely address justice concerns. This work critically examines the intricate relationship between climate change, climate justice, and tourism, emphasising the urgent need for a holistic approach to address the interconnected challenges of tourism-related sustainable development. The paper builds on a climate justice framework encompassing recognition, procedural, distributive, and restorative justice to systematically connect justice dimensions to the climate change-tourism nexus. A shift towards a performative justice framework includes all notions of justice and underscores the significance of examining the various justice challenges when embedding justice into climate policymaking. Enhancing visibility of climate justice should foster collaboration among researchers, policymakers, and advocates for climate justice. Ultimately, this article advocates for the development of just climate policies and practices, and an inclusive socio-economic transition at the local, global, and intergenerational levels.

Navigating the new approach and evolving theory: a study of injunctive relief for SEPs in China

ABSTRACT Civil law indicates that an injunction shall be granted once property rights and personal rights are found to have been violated. In China, intellectual property judicial practice has adhered to this rule, resulting in an initial approach to patent injunctions known as ‘injunctive relief as a matter of course’. However, with a deeper understanding of corrective justice in law and economics theory, the automatic application of injunction for patents has been restricted. Conversely, in disputes over standard essential patents (SEPs), China has shifted its approach to injunctive relief from de facto exclusion to conditional application. Although the approaches to ordinary patents and SEPs have diverged, the underlying theoretical support, i.e. the balance of interest principle and the proportionality principle, remains consistent. An analysis reveals that the balance of interest principle provides guidance in the settlement of SEP disputes, while the proportionality principle serves as an effective tool for implementation.

The Legal Renewal of Malpractices by Medical Personnel Based on Restorative Justice

The purpose of this research is to analyze and find regulations for handling suspected malpractice by medical personnel based on restorative justice. The research method uses empirical juridical; The results of the research indicate that the legal reform of malpractice carried out by medical personnel based on restorative justice is currently not in accordance with Restorative Justice, the current regulation of handling alleged malpractice by medical personnel lies in the substance of the law, namely the absence of nomenclature and rules for handling suspected malpractice by medical personnel in positive law. Indonesia. a legal structure that is still limited in its understanding and understanding by law enforcement officials. health law is not yet in accordance with the provisions of the health law, the legal culture of medical personnel whose legal understanding and awareness of health law is still not high, so that a just legal life in accordance with restorative justice has not been created. The value of justice in handling suspected malpractice provides balanced protection between medical personnel and patients, namely by providing services with noble and superior morals. health services, without stigma towards health workers and are fair and professional.

The Implications of Autochthony-Based Victimization for Reparative Justice in Africa

The concept of autochthony or ‘indigeneity’ has been employed in multiple contexts across Africa and refers to people with historical connections to particular territories. It can be manipulated by political elites who demonize perceived ‘allochthonous’ minorities or ‘outsiders’. Though autochthony-related violence is often considered to constitute or resemble genocide or ‘ethnic cleansing’, the contested nature of these concepts necessitates further consideration of the impact of such violence beyond the genocide lens. This essay explores the potential implications of such hostilities and violence for ‘restorative’ or ‘reparative’ justice. It focuses on the examples of the protracted violence in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Central African Republic (CAR), where both peace and justice seem elusive for many communities, and the missed opportunities to foster reparative justice for victims of the last major conflict in Côte d’Ivoire (2010–11). In focusing on victims of autochthony-related violence, this essay considers the potential specific, multilayered, and intersecting needs of such victims and the challenges they may face within the context of any broader, comprehensive processes of reparative justice. Given the challenges that this essay highlights, it concludes by recommending that scholars further consider a conceptualization of reparative justice encompassing the multilayered experiences of autochthony-based victimization.

Truth before transition: Reimagining anthropology as restorative justice

Truth before transition: Reimagining anthropology as restorative justice

An interview with Samuel Munderere and David Russell of Survivors Fund (SURF) on reparative justice for survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda

May 2024 An interview with Samuel Munderere and David Russell of Survivors Fund (SURF) conducted by Noam Schimmel for Peace Review. Survivors Fund (SURF) is the principal international non-governmental organization dedicated to supporting survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Established in 1997, it is a UK registered charity with its head office in Kigali, Rwanda. For further information please visit https://survivors-fund.org.uk/ or https://x.com/survivorsfund/ An interview with Samuel Munderere, Chief Executive, and David Russell, UK Coordinator, of Survivors Fund (SURF) on reparative justice for survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. This interview presents the views of Survivors Fund (SURF), the principal international non-governmental organization dedicated to supporting survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, on key questions and issues relating to reparative justice specific to Rwanda.

Collaborative renewable development in Chile: a new path forward for the Mapuche

For years, the conflict between the Mapuche people and energy developers has persisted in Chile’s southern Biobío Region. Chile’s future as a leader in renewable development hangs on the drafting of a new law, and workable solutions are needed now more than ever. The voters decisively rejected Chile’s latest constitutional draft, which afforded Indigenous people in Chile unprecedented recognition at the price of a new governmental structure. In the midst of these political developments, Chile is shifting to develop more renewable energy. This shift will require the use of Mapuche ancestral lands and waterways, likely causing increased tensions between the Chilean government, renewable energy developers, and the Mapuche. This paper assesses the just transition approach in Chile alongside the drafting of a new constitution for the country, with particular consideration for restorative and recognition justice. We provide a comprehensive summary of Mapuche’s historic and current claims to the ancestral lands in Chile and their resistance to hydroelectric power development projects along the Biobío River. Then, we review Chilean laws and court cases dealing with hydroelectric power development projects to pinpoint energy injustice. Finally, we use the energy justice framework to propose new energy laws for Chile that will encourage needed collaboration between the Chilean government, renewable energy developers, and the Mapuche.

Colonialism, Genocide and Reparations: The German‐Namibian Case

ABSTRACTIn 2015 the German government acknowledged that the Empire committed genocide in its colony South West Africa, known since its independence as Namibia. This acknowledgement marked a new reference point in how to engage with colonial crimes. Since then, Germany has fallen short of bearing full and unconditional responsibility for and recognition of the crime in terms of restorative justice. While Germany deserves credit for its commemoration and remorse over the Holocaust during World War II, victims of other forms of extermination with the intent to destroy still crave adequate recognition, commemoration and compensation in the form of reparations. This article presents the Namibian case to illustrate the contradictions and limitations that emerge when general notions are tested and undermined by asymmetric power relations of Realpolitik.

Mitigating risk in restorative justice

Mitigating risk in restorative justice

The Role of the Prosecutor's Office in Resolving Criminal Corruption Cases

The Prosecutor's Office plays a crucial role in the functioning of the legal system. However, in reality, the Corruption Court is still located in every provincial capital in Indonesia, which often results in high costs for resolving corruption cases which are sometimes disproportionate to the losses they cause to the state. The author of this research focuses on analyzing circular letters belonging to the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes by linking the theory of Legal Economic Analysis as a form of consideration and also explaining how the Prosecutional Office applies a restorative justice approach. The research contributes to the topic discussed by evaluating the policy's significance and the prosecutor-office's role in handling corruption cases through the application of restorive justice principles. This study also aims to provide an overview of the challenges and technical legal issues faced by the public prosecutor in carrying out their responsibility to recover funds and/or state assets.

About the relationship between victim support and restorative justice: a response from Victim Support Europe

About the relationship between victim support and restorative justice: a response from Victim Support Europe

Framing the relationship: victim support and restorative justice

Framing the relationship: victim support and restorative justice

Engaging victims as active citizens in restorative justice

Engaging victims as active citizens in restorative justice