2.2 Procedural Rules and Issues

This edited collection introduces and defines the concept of “comparative restorative justice”, putting it in the context of power relations and inequality. It aims to compare the implementation and theoretical development of restorative justice internationally for research, policy and practice. In Part I, this volume compares practices in relation to the implementing environment - be that cultural, political, or societal. Part II looks at obstacles and enablers in relation to the criminal justice system, and considers whether inquisitorial versus adversarial jurisdictions have impact on how restorative justice is regulated and implemented. Finally, Part III compares the reasons that drive governments, regional bodies, and practitioners to implement restorative justice, and whether these impetuses impact on ultimate delivery. Featuring fifteen original chapters from diverse authors and practitioners, this will serve as a key resource for those working in social justice or those seeking to understand and implement the tenets of restorative justice comparatively.

This report of the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice -- established by President Lyndon Johnson on July 23, 1965 -- addresses the causes of crime and delinquency and recommends how to prevent crime and delinquency and improve law enforcement and the administration of criminal justice. In developing its findings and recommendations, the Commission held three national conferences, conducted five national surveys, held hundreds of meetings, and interviewed tens of thousands of individuals. Separate chapters of this report discuss crime in America, juvenile delinquency, the police, the courts, corrections, organized crime, narcotics and drug abuse, drunkenness offenses, gun control, science and technology, and research as an instrument for reform. Significant data were generated by the Commission's National Survey of Criminal Victims, the first of its kind conducted on such a scope. The survey found that not only do Americans experience far more crime than they report to the police, but they talk about crime and the reports of crime engender such fear among citizens that the basic quality of life of many Americans has eroded. The core conclusion of the Commission, however, is that a significant reduction in crime can be achieved if the Commission's recommendations (some 200) are implemented. The recommendations call for a cooperative attack on crime by the Federal Government, the States, the counties, the cities, civic organizations, religious institutions, business groups, and individual citizens. They propose basic changes in the operations of police, schools, prosecutors, employment agencies, defenders, social workers, prisons, housing authorities, and probation and parole officers.

Today, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) has gained international recognition and is widely used to complement the conventional methods of resolving disputes through courts of law. ADR simply entails all modes of dispute settlement/resolution other than the traditional approaches of dispute settlement through courts of law. Mainly, these modes are: negotiation, mediation, [re]conciliation, and arbitration. The modern ADR movement began in the United States as a result of two main concerns for reforming the American justice system: the need for better-quality processes and outcomes in the judicial system; and the need for efficiency of justice. ADR was transplanted into the African legal systems in the 1980s and 1990s as a result of the liberalization of the African economies, which was accompanied by such conditionalities as reform of the justice and legal sectors, under the Structural Adjustment Programmes. However, most of the methods of ADR that are promoted for inclusion in African justice systems are similar to pre-colonial African dispute settlement mechanisms that encouraged restoration of harmony and social bonds in the justice system. In Tanzania ADR was introduced in 1994 through Government Notice No. 422, which amended the First Schedule to the Civil Procedure Code Act (1966), and it is now an inherent component of the country's legal system. In recognition of its importance in civil litigation in Tanzania, ADR has been made a compulsory subject in higher learning/training institutions for lawyers. This handbook provides theories, principles, examples of practice, and materials relating to ADR in Tanzania and is therefore an essential resource for practicing lawyers as well as law students with an interest in Tanzania. It also contains additional information on evolving standards in international commercial arbitration, which are very useful to legal practitioners and law students.

This book considers how access to justice is affected by restrictions to legal aid budgets and increasingly prescriptive service guidelines. As common law jurisdictions, England and Wales and Australia, share similar ideals, policies and practices, but they differ in aspects of their legal and political culture, in the nature of the communities they serve and in their approaches to providing access to justice. These jurisdictions thus provide us with different perspectives on what constitutes justice and how we might seek to overcome the burgeoning crisis in unmet legal need. The book fills an important gap in existing scholarship as the first to bring together new empirical and theoretical knowledge examining different responses to legal aid crises both in the domestic and comparative contexts, across criminal, civil and family law. It achieves this by examining the broader social, political, legal, health and welfare impacts of legal aid cuts and prescriptive service guidelines. Across both jurisdictions, this work suggests that it is the most vulnerable groups who lose out in the way the law now operates in the twenty-first century. This book is essential reading for academics, students, practitioners and policymakers interested in criminal and civil justice, access to justice, the provision of legal assistance and legal aid.