Restorative Justice as a Form of Collaborative Governance: A Theoretical Analysis of Mediation and Collaboration

Restorative justice challenges the values and processes of many modern retributive criminal justice systems, i.e. mechanisms of governance, through the promotion of values and processes that seek to promote collaboration of socio-political actors. While a series of ethical arguments and understandings serve as a strong basis for the promotion of restorative justice, the practice also argues for addressing the institutions and systems of governance that respond to instances of conflict and crime. This paper argues for an understanding of restorative justice as a practice of collaborative governance. Specifically, restorative justice depends upon three major principles of collaborative governance: civil society, deliberative democracy, and associational democracy. In this project, I review the foundations of restorative justice, and categorize process based and value based conceptions of restorative justice. Specifically, this argument focuses on micro- and macro-level process conceptions of restorative justice. By reviewing the frameworks of civil society, associational democracy, and deliberative democracy – I place restorative justice within the framework of collaborative governance. Ultimately, I argue restorative justice depends on shared values and processes inherent to civil society, associational democracy, and deliberative democracy.