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Doing Justice Intelligently in Civil Society.

Braithwaite, John
June 4, 2015

Source: (2006) Journal of Social Issues. 62(2):393-409.

Empirically, justice might be immanently holistic—with procedural, distributive,
restorative, and social justice positively correlated. Restorative justice may be
about creating spaces where the various imperfectly correlated facets of holistic
justice might cohere. State institutions of justice (such as criminal courts) with
deeply embedded traditions of narrowing the meaning of justice (to proportional
punishment, for example) are less fertile soil for holistic justice than civil society.
Beyond a move to holism and to civil society, the contributions to this special
issue imply a move to what Sherman calls “emotionally intelligent justice.” This
means nurturing the expression of vulnerable emotions and trying to avert the
provocation of aggressive or stigmatizing emotions. (author’s abstract).

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