This is an elective offered to students studying postgraduate law degrees at UNSW. This course has been introduced as an elective in the belief that graduates would benefit from an understanding of some of the alternative models of justice that increasingly play a role in contemporary national as well as international criminal justice systems. The course explores the theory and practice of restorative justice. Restorative justice is a mode of conflict resolution whereby those directly affected come together to discuss the harm and actively participate in decision-making concerning the best way forward. The course explores the theory of restorative justice as well as the strengths and limitations of a number of applications of restorative justice such as youth justice conferencing, victim-offender conferencing for adult offenders convicted of serious crime and circle sentencing approaches.

Main Topics

ADR
Conferencing
Criminal justice
Criminal law
Dispute resolution
Mediation
Non-adversarial practices
Restorative Justice