UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review

In November 2021, the UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review, in partnership with the UCLA Law Criminal Justice Program and several cosponsors, presented the symposium series Restorative Justice Origins, Applications, & Futures. The focus of the series was restorative justice, a concept derived from diverse indigenous community traditions around the world that include peacemaking, talking circles, and community healing. Remaining cognizant of these roots is essential to practicing restorative justice in good-faith. Today, restorative justice focuses upon healing relationships, both between community members and within individuals.

A number of peacemaking principles and practical skills and fall under the restorative justice umbrella. For example, practical skills include nonviolent communication, active listening, and understanding our own approaches to dealing with conflict. Among peacemaking principles, there is the importance providing time and space for healing, joint responsibility for one another, and identifying harmful actions’ impacts and communal remedies. Restorative justice has also been referred to as a social movement, particularly in light of recent racial violence and the calls to defund the police. While we don’t claim that restorative justice has all the answers to problems in criminal justice, it is a unique, genuine, and ongoing effort to find communal solutions to these problems. We hope this can be the first step of many in discussing restorative justice in law school and beyond.