Community-based restorative justice in Northern Ireland: A neo-traditionalist paradigm?

Source: (2010) The British Journal of Politics and International Relations. 12: 425-441.

This article critically assesses the scholarly representation of community-based restorative justice
(CBRJ) schemes in Northern Ireland. These schemes, which emerged in working-class areas
following the republican and loyalist ceasefires of the 1990s, have been the subject of intense
political debate and a growing body of academic literature. I argue that the academic depiction of
the schemes in republican areas ignores the substantial progress made by revisionist political
scientists and historians in understanding Provisional republicanism. By failing to take that
research into account, CBRJ scholars are in danger of not simply promoting vague,
de-contextualised policy prescriptions, but of actively reproducing republican understandings of
political developments. (Author’s abstract).