AGIS Conference : Multidimensional Restorative Justice for Everyone Budapest, 89 December

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AGIS Conference Multidimensional Restorative
Justice for Everyone Budapest, 8-9 December

• Prof.Dr. Doina Balahur
• Al.I.Cuza University of Iasi, Romania
• Restorative Justice Developments in Romania

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General Trends The Reform of the Justice Systems
and the Proliferation of ADR Practices

• There is a general trend, spread worldwide,
  aiming at the REFORM of the justice systems.
• The motivations for the deep changes the Justice
  Systems are experiencing are very different.
• Some pieces of research appreciate that the
  Reform is the result of the globally spread
  Neo-liberalism and its accompanying policies
  connected to the minimal state and subsidiarized
  patterns of governance ( local autonomy, cutting
  the public expenditure etc).

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Alternative Dispute Resolution

• No matter how the Reforms are interpreted
  /explained the empirical research identified
  several common directions.
• Among them, the implementation of the practices
  of Alternative Dispute Resolution (VOM, RJ,
  Negotiation, Conciliation, Ombudsman etc) seems
  to be an important option the justice systems are
  taking now into consideration.
• Braithwaite, identified more than 700 (2001),
  Bazemore more than 500 in USA (2005))
• In Europe, under the influence of the EU
  Regulations and of the Council of Europe
  Recommendations ADR are implemented in all the
  European countries (COST A 21).

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Romania and the Reform of the Justice System

• Within the process of the Reform of the Justice
  System Romania had some priorities
• Among them I)the observance of Human Rights
  standards in the legal /(especially) penal law
  and practices was of paramount importance both
  for becoming a member of the Council of Europe
  (since 1994) and than for the EU accession (2007)
  and II) The case overload of the judges

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The Reform of the Juvenile Justice System
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New Legal Measures and Strategies for the
Juvenile Justice System

• Three new social-legal institutions contributed
  to the radical changes within Romanian Juvenile
  Justice System and to a better observance of the
  Human Rights of the children in conflict with
  criminal law
• A) Probation (generally, alternative strategies
  ti custody/ 2000)
• B) Setting up the Juvenile Courts (2003)
• C) Implementing the experimental programmes of
  VOM (2003)

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Impact on the Juvenile Justice System

• The implementation of these three institutions
  resulted in the dropping down of the number of
  the juveniles locked (586 in custody in
  Educational Centers).

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Case overload and the efficacy of the justice
system

• In1990, 1.513 judges had 589.660 civil and penal
  files
• The average case load for a judge/year was
  390/files
• In 2003, 3.557 judges had 1.453.776 files, that
  is, an average of 409 files/judge/year.

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Setting up the legal frame for Mediation

• Since 2006 Romania has a special law (192/2006)
  which regulates the possibility of referring the
  civil, commercial, family, and penal conflicts to
  the Mediation bodies.
• It is in force since the beginning of 2007

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The state of art

• Our evaluative research indicates that until now
  the Mediation has been used only for Civil and
  Commercial cases.
• In less than one year (according to the data on
  the NCM) 89 civil/commercial cases have been
  solved by mediators.

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There is no spring with a flower

• The law on mediation has important weakness which
  makes it less, or not at all effective in the
  field of family and penal conflicts
• Law on mediation states the obligation of the
  parties to pay for the mediation services/
  raising important restrictions for the parties
  which can not afford/ and limiting the access to
  justice.
• It promised to better observe HR .but it
  infringes important legal guaranties and rights..
• However so as our empirical research showed-
  there is an important openness of the judges and
  prosecutors towards the implementation of ADR.

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Thank you