Source: (2005) Drake Law Review. 53: 667-692.
In this paper, Mary Ellen Reimund discusses the role of lawyers and legal issues in relation to restorative justice in the adult criminal justice system. As she points out, the adversarial nature of the current legal system in the United States and restorative justice differ in certain fundamental ways in their approaches to what crime is and how to respond to crime. Given that most professionals in the current system received training in this adversarial approach, the increase of restorative justice programs in the United States occasions some significant questions about the role of the law and lawyers. Reimund further examines some specific legal issues that have surfaced regarding restorative justice, such as due process and the privilege against self-incrimination. Her aim in exploring all of this is to argue that law and lawyers can work in ways that support restorative values. Or, as she puts it, law can and should be a friend, not a foe, of restorative justice.
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