Where Society Must Rein in Government: Restorative Justice and Preservation of the Community

Source: (2001) Centre for Legal and Judicial Reform.

In the early 1990s judicial reforms were implemented in Russia. Rustem Maksudov cites various attitudes to those reforms, and claims that little attention has been given to the ideal of justice inherent in the reforms and the problems associated with making the ideal a reality amidst prevailing conditions in Russia. In particular, he argues that the absence of the rule of law in Russian government and society obstructs reforms. With all of this in mind, Maksudov examines older forms of communal resolution of conflict and relates them to restorative justice, especially victim-offender reconciliation programs. His aim is to identify key elements for the transformation of the judicial system.