Wright, Martin. 1999. The Development of Restorative Justice. Paper for International Program on Victimization, mediation and restorative justice, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, September 1997.

This paper will show some of the origins of restorative justice, and in particular the coming together of concern for the offender and for the victim. It will describe its early development in the form of victim/offender mediation, in Canada and the United States of America. It will take examples of the way the idea has taken root in Europe, from countries which have not changed their law (England and Wales), have modified it to facilitate mediation (Germany and Spain), or have incorporated it into (juvenile) law (Austria). It will then consider the re-birth of practices, restorative or communitarian or both, in countries which happen to be members of the British Old Commonwealth: New Zealand, Australia and Canada. (But perhaps this is no coincidence, because they are all countries where an indigenous culture, including ways of handling conflict, has been overlaid by the adversarial Western tradition.) Finally the paper will summarize features of restorative justice; some partially restorative measures; ways of promoting restorative justice; and conditions to be met if it is to fulfil its promise. (excerpt)