Nomadic Justice? Restorative Justice on the Margins of law

Source: (2002) Paper presented at the joint meetings of the Law and Society Association and the Canadian law and Society Association, Sheraton Wall Centre, Vancouver, BC, June 1, 2002.

Woolford and Ratner state that restorative justice practitioners often describe themselves as operating on the margins of the formal justice system. While some see this outsider role as an opportunity to challenge the norms and values of the criminal justice system, others envision greater inclusion in the formal justice system as the ultimate goal. Woolford and Ratner explore the tensions within the restorative justice movement with respect to collective identity and definition of broader goals. They contend that the marginal status claimed by most restorative justice practitioners and their fears of restorative justice being taken over by the criminal justice system are more imagined than real. However, argue Woolford and Ratner, it may be possible for restorative justice programs to pursue a specific form of “nomadic justiceâ€? that would serve as the basis for transformative interventions into the criminal justice system.