Restorative justice in Hong Kong -- a research study on the struggle between retribution and restoration

Abstract

Hong Kong has been a place where the rule of law is upheld as the cornerstone of the legal system, and the notion of rule of law is based very much on retributory justice — a system where defendants are given sufficient due process protection, and proportionate punishment is levied in a legal sense. In the criminal prosecution process, restorative justice exists in a peripheral way in the form of victim offender mediation. Though named as a form of mediation, the practice of restorative justice has been receiving much lesser attention when the use of mediation in the civil justice system has enjoyed huge growth in the territory. This article examines how the promotion of mediation in Hong Kong has supported potential development of restorative justice through the well-established pool of professionals, lawyers and helping professionals included, in the field.