A future agenda for environmental restorative justice?

Abstract

The challenges of developing meaningful environmental regulation to protect communities and the environment have never been greater. Environmental regulators are regularly criticised for failing to act hard and consistently, in turn leading to demands for harsher punishments and more rigorous enforcement. Whilst acknowledging the need for strong enforcement to address wantonly destructive practices threatening communities and ecosystems, we argue that restorative approaches have an important role. This article explores a future agenda for environmental restorative justice through (1) situating it within existing scholarly and practice-based environmental regulation traditions; (2) identifying key elements and (3) raising particular theoretical and practical challenges. Overall, our vision for environmental restorative justice is that its practices can permeate the entire regulatory spectrum, going far beyond restorative justice conferences within enforcement proceedings. We see it as a shared and inclusive vision that seeks to integrate, hybridise and build broader ownership for environmental restorative justice throughout existing regulatory practices and institutions, rather than creating parallel structures or paradigms.

Just transition: an operational frameworkto make transitions more just : Lessons learned from science and practice

“…At its core, restorative justice aims at repairing and healing adverse, past or foreseen, harm experienced by an individual, group or community as a result of perceived injustice (Forsyth et al, 2021;McCauley and Heffron, 2018).…”

“…This is when injustice has also resulted in emotional and relational harm, for example in cases of systemic marginalisation and historical oppression. Restorative justice is then about healing and restoring relationships (Best horn, 2004;Forsyth et al, 2021;McCauley and Heffron, 2018). The focus here is on the experiences of injustice of the victim and what is needed to repair the sense of injustice.…”

“…Listening to the ways in which injustice has affected the victim confronts the offender(s) with the true effects of their behaviour. Deep listening and storytelling play an important role here (Besthorn, 2004;Forsyth et al 2021). However, to ensure healing in restorative processes, it is imperative that consensus is reached on the harm inflicted, '[…] "with the goal of (re)building trust among involved parties.'…”

“…(Timmermann, 2020). Committed participation by all parties and meaningful interaction through dialogue create opportunities for mutual learning and foster empathy (Forsyth et al 2021). This shared understanding of the harm and its effects allows a collective search for appropriate measures to repair the damage and restore relations between all parties involved.…”

“…This shared understanding of the harm and its effects allows a collective search for appropriate measures to repair the damage and restore relations between all parties involved. In this way, restorative justice also aims to prevent future injustices (Forsyth et al, 2021;Timmermann, 2020). To make sure restorative justice takes place, a willingness and high level of commitment by all parties is required, including the offenders of injustice, which requires the acceptance of accountability (Forsyth et al 2021).…”