Restorative Justice and the Law (eBook)

Restorative justice has developed from a barely known term to a central role in debates on the future of criminal justice. As it has moved into the mainstream so new tensions and issues have emerged as it has become increasingly integrated into normal practice, and become part of broader legal and judicial systems -both in common law countries and those with centralized legal systems. The purpose of this book is to explore this developing relationship between the concepts and practice of restorative justice on the one hand, and the law and legal systems on the other. Amongst the questions it addresses are the following: how are informal processes to be juxtaposed with formal procedures?; what is the appropriate relationship between voluntarism and coercion?; and how can the procedures and practices of restorative justice be combined with legal standards, safeguards and precepts?;In this book a distinguished team of contributors consider this crucual set of relationships between restorative justice and the law, building upon papers and discussions at the 5th international restorative justice conference in Leuven, Belgium, in September 2001.