Source: (2007) Restorative Justice Online.
Scholars generally believe that there must be a strong consistency between the
principles of modern restorative justice and ancient Chinese Confucian Philosophical
ideas. John Braithwaite once wrote “Confucius is the most important philosopher of
restorative justiceâ€2. However, few studies to date have analyzed Confucius’ work and
identified the specific ideas which encourage the values and practices of restorative
justice. John Braithwaite also pointed out that it is “a pity that so few Western
intellectuals are engaged with the possibilities for recovering, understanding and
preserving the virtues of Chinese restorative justice while studying how to check its
abuses with a liberalizing rule of lawâ€3. It is unfortunate that the Western restorative
justice movement has not yet borrowed much theoretical insight from studying the
valuable heritage of Confucius’s ideas, which are truly a profound source of wisdom for
modern Western restorative justice reformers. (excerpt)
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