Description
This book takes bold steps in forming much-needed philosophical foundations for restorative justice through deconstructing and reconstructing various models of thinking. It challenges current debates through the consideration and integration of various disciplines such as law, criminology, philosophy and human rights into restorative justice theory, resulting in the development of new and stimulating arguments. Topics covered include the close relationship and convergence of restorative justice and human rights, some of the challenges of engagement with human rights, the need for the recognition of the teachings of restorative justice at both the theoretical and the applied level, the Aristotelian theory on restorative justice, the role of restorative justice in schools and in police practice and a discussion of the humanistic African philosophy of Ubuntu. With international contributions from various disciplines and through the use of value based research methods, the book deconstructs existing concepts and suggests a new conceptual model for restorative justice. This unique book will be of interest to academics, researchers, policy-makers and practitioners. Review: 'Gavrielides and Artinopoulou propose a reconstructed philosophy of restorative justice that is much more expansive and inclusive, much less either/or, than the usual approach. For the restorative justice movement to progress, they argue, we first must reconcile the internal tensions identified by the authors in this volume: conceptual, philosophical, political, personal. Their proposed reconstructed philosophy helps point a direction but in addition, they also suggest some rules for moving in this direction, asking those of us working in and advocating for restorative justice to redirect some of our energies. The methodology the editors adopted for this volume is also significant. Instead of limiting contributions to empirical analysis, they encouraged authors to write freely from a variety of sources and perspectives. As the library recall notice says, this book is long overdue.'Howard Zehr, Eastern Mennonite University, USA'No one will be able to read this book without wishing they were there for the journey that gave it birth. Rich outcomes are enabled by richness of process. This book succeeds in drawing us into the journey of its travelers and is a grand exercise in critical retrieval, revival, renewal of those teachings, ancient and recent. There is a great, enduring core of restorative justice teachings that has an increasingly global quality about it. This fine collection helps us renew and reconstruct the core of restorative justice teachings at their holistic philosophical foundations while also helping us to look at them with wider historical and cultural lenses. As the Epilogue reminds us, restorative justice lives and evolves in the hands of this generation of travelers on our planet. Our obligation, the Epilogue sums up, is not to be the kind of philosophers whose aim is to define restorative justice more carefully, because if we define water too narrowly , we prevent people from seeing its other properties.'John Braithwaite, Australian National University, Australia
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