Focusing on restorative justice and mediation in the context of therapeutic jurisprudence in Lithuania

• In Event: National Developments in Restorative Justice

Abstract

One of the important issues of the criminal justice system in Lithuania is how to implement mediation into the criminal justice system. Mediation in criminal cases has not yet been introduced in Lithuania. Article 38 of the Criminal Code provides release from criminal liability upon victim-offender reconciliation. However, this procedure is only similar to mediation, as the mediator's participation in the reconciliation process is not regulated.
Both restorative justice and therapeutic jurisprudence are vectors of the comprehensive law movement (Daicoff 2005). Therapeutic jurisprudence aims to reduce the harmful, anti-therapeutic effects of law while enhancing the positive or therapeutic effects (Wemmers, 2019). The presentation will discuss the results of an empirical study conducted to investigate whether the institution of victim-offender reconciliation, which includes elements of mediation, helps to implement the ideas and challenges of therapeutic jurisprudence in Lithuanian criminal justice. The study included a content analysis of 100 court decisions issued in 2018–2022 in criminal cases on the release from criminal liability after reconciliation between the perpetrator and the victim under Article 38 of the Criminal Code (Michailovič & Jakaitytė 2024).

Author

• Ilona Michailovič, Vilnius University Faculty of Law, Lithuania